The Black Pyramid
by roronoapedro
Summary: After completing a mysterious puzzle, Naoto Shirogane finds herself having to deal with a mystery that, somehow, keeps making her interact with the card game her friends have been playing for a while now. Whatever her opinion on the activity, it's still a case, so the Detective Prince is on the job, accompanied by an ancient Pharaoh who loves Duel Monsters just a tad too much.
1. Bonds Beyond Time

"So what you're saying is," she said, staring at the Pharaoh matter-of-factually "it wasn't just a puzzle."

It's not like Naoto never took a trip to the core of her soul/mind/it wasn't clear before, but she usually had the TV's help for that. Even if that sentence made no sense, that's just how her world was. But right now she was staring at the tall, handsome Egyptian while standing in an infinite, impossible maze, with no television in sight.

"No. It wasn't."

"I see."

The detective looked around again, trying to absorb the alien geometry and overall lack of logic of the place. Stairs went up and down and down again, but a different down. Doors opened to different places than you'd expect, and then you would try again and they would go to _another _place you didn't expect. And to think all she had to do to access this impossible plane of existence was to… what had she done, again?

Ah, yes. The puzzle.

"I believe I haven't properly introduced myself. My name is Naoto Shirogane."

"Ms. Shirogane, it's a pleasure. My name is Atem." The name sounded familiar. Not as familiar as Cleopatra or Tutankhamen, but still sounded related to Egyptian royalty. His skin tone and clothing didn't match any Egyptian period she knew of, though. In fact, it looked like last year's Domino City fashion. "Is something the matter?" He probably noticed her staring.

"Your name sounds Egyptian, but…"

"The clothes." She wasn't going to mention his ethnicity like _that_, so she just nodded. "They are… a vestige of my last partner."

"And the hair too, I suppose?" There was also the amazing multicolor crowd of purple, black and yellow hair adorning the man's head that was _NOT_ natural, no matter how much-

"Oh no, that's mine all right."

Well.

"Well, it's been a pleasure Mr. Atem, but could I please be either escorted out of here, or given a reason as to why you have summoned me to your…"

"Millennium Puzzle."

"The puzzle I just completed? I am _inside_ of it?"

"I'm afraid so. When you complete it, you gain the ability to directly tether with my spirit and mind. To become one with and access the skill of the King of Games, to be the very best, like no one ever was, in the most noble of sports."

"Chess?" She risked.

"Duel Monsters."

Naoto stared at the Pharaoh.

"No."

"Excuse me?"

"You said Duel Monsters?"

"Well, yes, it's an ancient game of-"

"_No._"

"I'm sorry, did I say something wrong?" Atem looked flustered and mildly offended that someone wouldn't think Duel Monsters is the greatest thing ever. Naoto had seen that particular look before.

In Teddie's eyes.

"I am not interested in a children's card game, Mr. Atem, and I would like to leave now."

"But Mr. Shirogane, it's not-"

"_It is_._" _She'd had this argument before. With two of her best friends. At the same time. "And, as I said, I am not interested, _in the slightest_, on participating on such trivial hobbies."

"But apparently watching Transformers cartoons is a respectable occupation."

Her eye widened, but she managed to keep her composure.

"Get out of my mind!"

"I'm afraid I cannot. Even if I don't approve of your words, I must at least try to convince you to listen to me, since a great danger has come to your city."

Naoto sighed, not sure if she should believe the Pharaoh. Or if it even mattered. She and her friends had beaten great dangers before. In fact, they were a great danger _to_ great dangers at this point. What could this card game aficionado possibly say to convince her?

"Fine. Go on."

"My Millennium Puzzle has detected another one of the Millennium Items on the proximities of your city, and it also harbors a spirit. Not quite like me, though. It is a dark spirit, and if it manages to possess an innocent soul, the consequences will be severe to all life."

"That does sound incredibly important and quite alarming."

"To prevent that, we must beat this evil spirit in a fair game and-"

"Oh my _God._" Naoto pressed her temples in an attempt to quell her annoyance at the man. He had no idea the hell she had had to support in the last few days because of that stupid game. "Look Mr. Pharaoh, I understand you mean well, but please, keep the card games to a minimum. I am not interested in them at all."

"But you don't understand, we've played this game for over three thousand years and it is the only way to defeat him!"

"Have you won a duel against him in the last three thousand years?"

"Yes, of course! I am the King of Games."

"And yet, he's back."

Atem was taken aback, but he looked more embarrassed than angry.

"Well, he's smart. He always manages to come back somehow."

"Maybe because your method of dealing with the problem is _to play a children's card game_."

"It is NOT for children!"

"Look in my memories and search for Teddie."

"I… look Naoto, I need your help here, okay? Yugi's too busy now that he's a teacher at Duel Academy, and I can't do this on my own. You're easily the smartest person in this town, I know it because you actually took the time to solve my puzzle…"

"I thought it was for kids."

"… the point is, your city is in trouble and I would like your help to save it."

As much as she disliked the idea of getting involved in Duel Monsters, Naoto had to admit it was _still_ her job as regular heroine and all-around badass to save Inaba whenever the city needed her. Because of that, she sighed and extended her hand to the man.

"I accept the case. However, I would prefer if we kept card games out of this. We do things my way."

"I accept your conditions." Atem said, squeezing Naoto's hand with a firm grip.

"So, do you know where this other item might be?"

"I already know it, actually. Remember when you asked me to look for this… Teddie… in your memories?"

"Yes?"

Atem waved his hand by his side, materializing a tridimensional image of Teddie on his human form. Naoto wanted to ask what was wrong with Teddie, but then a shiny outline slowly became clearer on the general area of his chest.

"That right there is known as the Millennium Ring." Atem said, his frown suddenly very serious. "And your friend Teddie has it."


	2. Change of Heart

**Hello you. This is my first fanfiction written entirely in English! Insert exciting imagery here.  
Sorry for any mistakes and awkward sentences that I didn't pick up on while I was writing them, I will be sure to update the files if I see anything too bad. Well, I hope you're having fun. This chapter was originally going to be named after the "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" trap card, but I thought Change of Heart would be more appropriate because of spoilers. Well, LET'S GO HOLYSH**

* * *

Naoto was walking down the Central Shopping District trying to piece together what she knew about the case. The name of the criminal was Bakura, an ancient Egyptian criminal who had his soul sealed on the Millennium Ring by circumstances she did not fully understand, but that did not matter for the case. His modus operandi was to approach innocent and/or pure minds and slowly take control of the body, while alternating between overpowering or hiding from the original soul. His abilities included a genius-level intellect (at least according to Atem, which, upon further questioning, made it sound like he was just really naïve last time he faced Bakura) and the ability to control something called the "Shadow Realm." Apparently it had the power to steal your soul.

Run off the mill job considering this _was_ Inaba, but it was still important, so Naoto had to do it. There was one thing, though.

"And you want to take control of my body?" The Pharaoh was floating by her side, invisible to all but her.

"Yes. That way I can settle things with Bakura once and for all."

"I'm afraid that is not an option. We're doing this my way, remember? And I don't take fondly of strangers taking control of my body."

"Why, Naoto, I would never do anything to harm you, if that's what you're implying."

"Not at all. I just had a bad experience once. It involved a red Jesus and Heaven. Since then I rather be in charge."

Atem stopped on his tracks for a few moments, as if trying to understand what Naoto just told him. He eventually caught up to her again.

"But that's how Yugi and I used to do it, and we had amazing results. We saved the world countless times."

"Who is this Yugi, anyway?"

Atem smiled, waving his hand at the air again. A tridimensional image appeared before Naoto. It looked just like Atem, only way shorter and with a different hairstyle.

"That's Yugi?"

"Yes. He is my best friend. We conquered many trials together, and I don't know who I would be without him."

"Are you two related?"

He didn't seem to understand. "What? No. We're just friends."

"But he looks just like you."

"No he doesn't."

Naoto's eyebrow joined her cap for a moment.

"Pharaoh, he is literally a shorter version of you."

The specter of the Pharaoh floated and stared at Yugi's image for a couple of seconds, studying it with a noticeable amount of attention. Finally, still frowning, he said:

"Well, yes, I guess I can see some resemblance."

Naoto decided it _really_ wasn't worth it and just continued walking to Kanji's house.

"By the way, Naoto, I've been meaning to ask you about something for a while now."

"Yes?"

"There's this… young man, I presume?… inside your head."

"I don't follow."

"He wears a blue suit and has a giant sword. I mean… a _ridiculously _large sword. I think he doesn't like me."

"Oh, that's just Sukuna-Hikona. He's my Persona."

"Your… _what_?"

"My Persona. It's the personification of the superego I actively use to function in society based on cultural elements as perceived by my ego and in direct disparate with my id, drawing power from my resolve to…" She planned to continue, but the utterly helpless look on Atem's face made her reconsider her approach. "It's… a friend. He helps me fight and cares for me."

"Oh." Atem said, looking slightly less confused. "I understand. So should I be worried about him and that big sword of his?"

She looked at him, with a gentle smile.

"Only if you don't stop with this body-control nonsense." And then Atem noticed it wasn't gentle at all, and decided to keep quiet for a while.

They finally arrived at Tatsumi Textiles. The small store was getting pretty popular within the city, especially because of its high-quality plushies. Naoto had received two or three from Yosuke as apologies for breaking something during visits to the Shirogane Manor, and, even if he just _had_ to pick the girliest, most adorable plushie Kanji made that day, she had to admit she was quite fond of it. It was a little black cat and she slept with it on her pillow every-

"Are you reading my thoughts right now?" She asked Atem, who didn't meet her gaze.

"… no."

Naoto was going to say something, but Kanji opened the door. The hulking high schooler had his working apron on, so he was probably sewing. There was a time where he would have been too ashamed to open the door like that, but he either simply did not care anymore or completely forgot about his current adornments. Probably a bit of both.

"Oh, sup Naoto-kun." He looked a bit tired, but didn't all men at this age? "You lookin' for Rise-san or somethin'?"

"Hello Kanji-san, and no, Rise isn't the reason I am here." Naoto tried not to look at Pharaoh's ghost while he entered Kanji's home. "I understand you and Teddie spent a lot of time together these past few days, and I would like to ask you a couple of questions."

"Sure. Uh, the guys are here, though, if you don't mind."

"Oh?" That was interesting. She expected Yosuke to be attending Summer School because of his bad grades. Yu had been in town for a week now, though. Maybe he skipped it. "Am I interrupting?"

"Oh no, we were just playin'-"

"YES!" She could hear Atem's cry of approval from indoors, and it didn't take a lot of mental effort to imagine the cause of it.

"-Duel Monsters." Said Kanji, inviting Naoto in. "Hey guys, Naoto's here!"

"Oh, hi Naoto-chan." Yu was cordial, as always. He smiled at Naoto and Naoto smiled back at him.

"Hello, Naruk-"

"GOD DAMN IT, CHIE!" Her response was cut short by Yosuke's frustrated yelling and Chie's satisfied laughter.

"HAH! Take that! I told you you can't win with a deck like that!"

"You used Swords of Revealing Light, you know I hate that shit!" Yosuke was _angry_ for some reason, while Atem just nodded.

"He only had monsters on his hand." The Pharaoh seemed to be enjoying himself. "And apparently on his deck, too. A rookie's mistake."

"Oh hey, Naoto-kun's here!" Chie noticed Naoto, rising to her feet to greet her. Yosuke kept sulking on his place, though.

"It's nice seeing you all here. But where is Teddie?"

"Working at Junes." Yosuke said, now looking at Chie's hand since she wasn't playing anymore. "Wait, you had TWO Swords of Revealing Light? You can only have one per deck! That's cheating, Chie!"

"We're not on a tournament." She said, sticking her tongue out. Yosuke was still furious, but Yu intervened before he said anything.

"Don't worry, Yosuke. It's my turn now, I'll avenge you."

"Yeah." He said, a smile growing on the side of his face. "You get her, partner."

"Kanji, please?" Naoto asked, wanting to get out of that place bef-

"Why don't you play with us, Naoto-kun?" Chie asked, always her happy self. "It's so fun! I don't get why you don't like it."

"I just" Naoto started, but she'd had that argument before. "It's just not for me. Kanji, do you mind?"

"Yeah… sure." For all the times Kanji couldn't be asked to read the mood, he had become surprisingly good at telling when Naoto wasn't feeling confortable. They both left the room, with Atem floating closely, and went to the inner parts of the house, where all they could hear from their friends was Yosuke's cheering for Yu and Chie's disbelief that he had already started to damage her Life Points. "You don't sound all right, if you don't mind me sayin'."

"It's nothing. I just don't really want to get into that game of theirs right now."

"Why?" Atem and Kanji said at the same time. Kanji's tune was more of an inquisitive, innocent question, but Atem's was more interested and puzzled.

"Kanji."

"Okay, okay, geez. Not going there. So, you wanted to know about Teddie?"

"Yes." _All right. This is a case, Naoto. Act like it._ "Could you please tell me about the last time you spoke with Teddie?"

"Well… he's been modeling for me, so I suppose it was two days ago? Or yesterday. I dunno, I pulled an all-nighter, so it's fuzzy."

"Please, try to focus. You said modeling?"

"Yeah, turns out Teddie plushies sell like gold." He said, pointing at a collection of fabrics on top of a table. They were mostly red. "So I had him here to check out proportions and stuff. He won't lend me just his suit, so we spent a couple days together like that."

"I see."

"… wait, why are you asking me that? It… might have come out wrong. I didn't _spend days_ with him, I just- argh, god damn it-"

"Kanji-san, it's okay." Naoto was quick to calm the man down, knowing it was a touchy subject. But still, she really needed this information. "Was he acting any different?"

Kanji raised an eyebrow and looked up to the ceiling, as if trying to remember. "Now that you mention it… well, it's Teddie, so, you know, what _isn't _weird for him?"

"Yes?"

"Last time I saw him he wasn't as cheerful, but it's not like he was sad or anythin'. He kept looking at me funny, too."

"What do you mean?"

"I dunno, okay? Kinda like I was annoying him. In fact he was supposed to come here today too, but senpai told me he was working at Junes. It's strange, but I figured he'd eaten something rotten or something."

"That doesn't seem like Bakura." Atem finally said, standing beside Naoto. "It's not like him to break character like that, even if he's impatient."

"Maybe he had somewhere else to go?" Naoto asked the Pharaoh, granting her an inquisitive look from Kanji.

"Maybe, but no one told me anything."

"It's possible." Said the Pharaoh, but he was clearly not convinced. "Or perhaps Teddie wasn't as good a vessel as he thought he was at first."

"So maybe he wanted to go search for someone else." It made sense. Maybe the Millennium Ring was affected by Teddie's unique biology or something like that.

"Naoto? Are you still talking to me?" Kanji finally asked, reminding Naoto that other people couldn't see Atem.

"Oh. Oh, I'm sorry about that. Never mind. You said Teddie was working at Junes, so he's still there, right?"

"I-I guess?"

"Right. Thank you for the assistance, Kanji-san. And, um… is there a backdoor?"

"Second door to the left, but why?"

"They are still playing."

Kanji just shrugged.

Turns out the backdoor at Kanji's house went all the way to Tatsuhime Shrine, so Naoto was still close to Junes. The case seemed pretty straightforward so far. Over the past couple of days Teddie had, somehow, found the Millennium Ring and wore it, probably thinking it was a nice trinket. After that, the spirit Bakura had taken over, but was still keeping appearances so no one would notice. Yesterday was apparently the last straw, for reasons she did not know so far, so he was now on the loose. However, according to Kanji and Yosuke, Teddie was working at Junes today, so whatever Bakura wanted to do had not started yet.

Some parts of that didn't make sense yet, but Naoto would soon have Bakura in custody and then she could just interrogate him. She turned to Atem to share her thoughts while going to the shopping complex, and the Pharaoh listened patiently. With hand on chin, he finally made his position clear:

"I don't like this."

"What do you mean?"

"This isn't like Bakura at all. If what you're saying is true, then he has been in Inaba for days now. His usual plans don't take this long to begin, and Kanji could even see that there was something wrong with Teddie… it's just too amateurish."

"Maybe it's not Bakura? Maybe a different spirit has possessed Teddie?"

He shook his head in disagreement.

"There is only one other spirit on these Millennium Items, and I destroyed him personally. It couldn't possibly be him, even if he escaped, since he resides in a different item."

"We're getting to Junes. Do you think you can feel Bakura's presence, even if he's on Teddie's body?"

"Maybe. We'll see."

She took the elevator to the Food Court, formal headquarters to the Inaba Investigation Team and right now the workplace of Teddie, Junes's most profitable mascot. She had seen the design for other potential mascots once, and according to Yosuke: _oh_ _boy_ he was glad Teddie took the job. The other ones were incredibly creepy. Yukiko said she was certain she had killed a Shadow just like one of them once, actually.

The place wasn't very crowded, since rush hour hadn't begun yet. In fact, Naoto and Teddie were the only people there, since the last client was going away. The persona user was entertaining absolutely no one at the north end of the court. There was something wrong.

"Teddie?" Naoto called. The Shadow-turned-human didn't answer, too absorbed in his task of screaming nice things to paying customers that weren't actually there.

"Come on now, guys! With me! Every~day's~great~at-"

"Teddie." She called again, getting closer. The boy finally looked at her, and his smile grew three times its own size.

"Naoto-chaaaaan!" He dropped a plaque that advertised some sort of discount for "cute girls", which Naoto had every reason to believe was not sanctioned by Yosuke's father, and threw himself in her arms. She was actually physically stronger than that particular teenager with the mind of a child, so Naoto managed to not fall down. It went better than the time Chie tried that particular stunt and ended up having to apologize for making them both fall on top of her cap. "It's so good to see you here!"

"Yes, Teddie, it's good to see you too. You can let go now." As stated, the mind of a child. The blonde's feet finally touched the ground, but his smile never faltered. It was classic Teddie.

Considering what he was doing earlier, though, something was amiss.

"So, are you looking for Yosuke-senpai or Sensei?" He asked, as chirpy as ever.

"Actually, I came here to see you."

His reaction was to make an "o" with his mouth and to shakes his fists like a fangirl for a few moments, only to then raise an eyebrow in a way that Nanako would call "grow-up style" and touch the air in front of his chin with the tip of his fingers.

"My my, Naoto-chan… so you've finally come to terms with your feelings for me! Why, if I knew today was the day, I would have-"

"Teddie" It's not like it annoyed her or anything, it was actually kind of funny and cute, but she was slowly realizing there was something very wrong with Teddie. "What are you doing with your hand?"

Atem had been ghosting over Teddie for a while now, as if trying to pinpoint something. Mildly disappointed, he shook his head. "This doesn't make sense" he said to himself.

"Why, I'm holding my chin like a cool guy!" Teddie answered, still not aware that he was just holding air. "Wait, I know— would you like to pet my soft fur to begin our date, Naoto-chan?"

The detective finally noticed what was wrong with Teddie's actions. And it was bad.

"Teddie, are you in your bear suit right now?" If he was, his hand would indeed have been on his chin. It also didn't make sense that he was working _without_ his bear suit, since _it_ was Junes's mascot, not Teddie himself.

She could have _sworn_ she saw a flash of something passing through Teddie's eyes. A yellow energy that made them glow for a split second, but enough for Atem to see it, too.

"Great Rah" He muttered, eyes wide open.

"Of course I'm in my bear suit, Naoto-chan." His voice was different, almost as if he was talking from far away. It was devoid of any of the usual joy Teddie's voice carried in the conversation. "I'm always on my bear suit when I go to work."

"Teddie…"

"Naoto, get down!" Atem tried to warn her, but it was too late.

The energy blast hit her at point blank, making her cap fly away. Her back hit some chair in mid-air, which made her lose her breath. The detective could barely identify the screams of the few people inside the shopping when she saw Teddie's feet moving closer.

"Naoto-chan" His voice was still devoid of emotion, as if he didn't know what he was doing. "You look tired. Let me help you."

"God damn it" Naoto muffled, reaching for her gun. She was on her feet as soon as she could, taking a step backwards and pointing it at Teddie's general direction. "Stop it, Teddie!"

She would _never_ point a gun straight at Teddie, but she wanted to see if he would even react. The answer was no, he wouldn't, and he didn't. So he was being mind-controlled. She quickly put the gun away, and measured her options.

"Naoto, let me handle this!" Atem pledged, by her side. "I can use your body!"

"Will Teddie be hurt?" She asked. He was getting closer, and she got hold of a broken chair leg by her feet. She swung it like a baseball bat, but Teddie grabbed it without even looking at the damn thing, dropping in on the ground shortly after.

"We don't have time for this, quickly!"

"Will. Teddie. Be. Hurt?" She was almost at the breaking point with Atem. Later she would congratulate herself for not screaming on his intangible face at the time.

"I will do my best."

"Then do it!"

It was a weird feeling at first. Like that one time when she tried sake and it got to her head too fast, a dizzying sensation that spread from your head all the way down to your legs. This one didn't make her trip and fall spectacularly, though. A moment later, she was seeing a bright yellow light, and then, suddenly, she was looking at herself.

Now _she _was the ghost_. _Naoto could see her body, but it was different. Her hair was too spiky, almost making her want to get a haircut. Her posture was way more confident too, even if she didn't have problems with that. There was a shiny eye symbol in the middle of her forehead, but the most striking aspect of her new look was her actual eyes.

They seemed deep, like when Yukiko was on her period and accidentally put on too much mascara. Her pupils were completely dilated, and they were gawking, almost if trying to murder anything that their gaze laid upon. They were powerful and terrible. Amazing and terrifying. Like a merciless king looking upon their mighty kingdom with the certainty that they _owned_ everything they saw.

"Evil incantation" Was her voice always that deep? She didn't think so. She'd recorded herself to check if her raspy deep tune was correct, but this… was another's person voice. "Dissipate! Leave this young man's mind NOW!"

Teddie stopped moving forward. And smiling. The same eye symbol that was on Naoto's forehead appeared in the middle of his chest, and his eyes started to glow in a sick yellow hue.

"Ah. Pharaoh. I thought you might find this puppet." It wasn't just Teddie voice anymore, either. It was a double mess of conflicting sounds: the high-pitched voice of the ex-Shadow and a sarcastic, despicable tone.

"Bakura." Atem's voice as interpreted by Naoto's vocal box was filled with rage. "I was right. You _did_ possess this boy once, didn't you?"

"My my, let's not spoil everything." He shrugged in a way Teddie would _never_ do, smiling sickly as he did it. It made Naoto sick seeing his friend used like this. "I believe you will have a lot more fun if you try to see the bigger picture by yourself. With your new companion, of course." Then he looked at her, and she could see the reason Atem was so shaken up. The man's gaze, even if it was not coming from _his_ body, was the gaze of someone who just didn't care about other people's lives. Teddie was at a great risk right now, and Naoto felt like a fool for going head-first into this. Who was she, Chie?

"You know there's no place you can possibly go where I won't find you, Bakura." Atem gestured dramatically, but somehow when he did it, hand gestures didn't seem _too_ ridiculous. "And you know I will win. I always do."

"Oh, Pharaoh, Pharaoh… always the first to jump and the last one to look down" The smile was replaced with a daunting scowl. "I always hated that in you. But who knows?" He chuckled a little, more confident than he had any right to be. "I might even miss it after tomorrow."

"What happens tomorrow?" She said, stepping forward. "What are your intentions with Teddie?!"

"So the pup talks." _I will shoot this man._ "Don't worry, you and your little group are all invited to the main event. But please, feel free to abandon the premises right now. No one will blame you. Hahahahaha…" To see Teddie laughing that diabolically would have been funny in any other context.

"Enough." Atem said, fed up. "I will allow you to hurt this child no longer!" He pointed his hand at Teddie's body, which stopped laughing immediately. And then he _broke_ it.

It looked like he broke it from Naoto's perspective, at least. She didn't see a ray of light or anything flashy, but _something_ in Teddie was hurt. His eyes were gaping, and his pale skin got ever whiter. A gush of wind followed Atem's hand movements, and, as fast as it had appeared, Bakura's presence was gone. And Teddie passed out.

"Teddie!" Naoto shouted, looking at her own body. "Atem! Switch back, NOW!"

The Pharaoh didn't say anything, and a couple of moments later, she was back in her body. Naoto ran to Teddie's side on the ground, first checking if he was breathing. _I'm actually worried if he's breathing or not_, she thought. _What have we gotten involved into?_

Fortunately, Teddie looked fine. A bit paler than usual, but fine. After a couple of seconds, he opened his eyes and started crying.

"Naoto-chan…" Teddie cried in his fake-drama voice. "Please… come closer…"

"I'm not kissing you, Teddie."

"But I'm dying! Don't you see?"

"Heh. You're fine." She smiled. Teddie was back.

"I promised I wouldn't hurt him." Atem said behind her back.

"Yes you did. Thank you."

"Wh-what?"

"Nothing, Teddie. Do you remember anything?"

"I… why are all the chairs on the floor?" The detective turned around and noticed the chaos that Bakura's actions had ensued. There were broken pieces of chairs and tables all around them, and most of the decorative umbrellas were torn apart. Yosuke would be furious, and she would probably have to pay for all of this.

"I'll explain it to you later. First, let's get you sitting down." She helped the boy up, and after some close calls where he almost tripped, Naoto put him in one of the wooden benches next to the glass door to the shopping area. "Now I will ask again, and it is very important that you tell me the truth: what is the last thing you remember?"

"The last thing… well, I left Kanji's house after five, and went to Samegawa to…" He stopped, not really sure what to say. "I don't know… but I saw this pretty necklace ring thing by the riverside, and I thought I'd put it on…"

"And then?"

"And then I woke up to Naoto-chan's beautiful face right next to mine!" His voice was dreamy and his eyes were watering, but Naoto paid no attention. So at least the timeframe she'd theorized about was correct. But, as Atem said, it still made no sense. Bakura would have made his move by then.

"Bakura wasn't really here, Naoto." Atem said, floating by her side. "Before I entered your body, a mind-control spell affected Teddie. Bakura merely transferred his attention and conscience to his body when I showed up."

"Teddie, where is your bear suit?" That had been the trigger that activated Bakura's spell, so it was probably important.

The blonde didn't answer at first. His frown deepened as if he was trying very hard to think about something. Then his eyes shut tight. She could almost see the concentration fumes coming out of his ears.

"Oh! I know!" At first he smiled, but then his face fell to a confusing 'Huh?' expression.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know why, but I remember my bear suit being on the TV World… and it's weird."

By this point Naoto's mind had pieced together the information, so Teddie didn't really need to confirm it. But he did anyway.

"For some reason, I think it was moving on its own. And it stole my necklace thing!"


	3. Puppet Master

Even if Naoto hadn't called Yu on her cellphone, news of the mysterious "hurricane" that hit the Junes Food Court spread throughout the city like wildfire, so her friends would probably have arrived anyway. The first ones were the group she met back at Kanji's, with Yukiko and Rise arriving a couple of minutes later.

"What happened here?" Rise's reaction was a reasonable amount of shock. Yosuke's?

"OH MY GOD."

Wasn't as subtle.

"Are you okay, Teddie? Would you like me to heal you?" Yukiko was by Teddie's side, trying to find any wounds on his body. Kanji was busy trying to calm Yosuke down.

"Well, if you insist on giving me a full body check, it is my duty to compl-"

"Yeah, you're all right." Yukiko interrupted him with a blank expression, leaving her seat.

"Thank you for coming so fast." Naoto started. She had a lot of explaining to do.

After a lot of backstory, explanations and _assuring _Yosuke that she would indeed pay for damages, she turned to Yu. "I have reasons to believe Bakura is now inside the TV World, using Teddie's bear suit as a vessel."

"I see, but why didn't you tell us sooner?" Yu wasn't annoyed at Naoto, even if he, as team leader, had every reason to be. "Teddie could have gotten seriously hurt, and we would have helped you."

"I know. I underestimated Bakura's powers ." She dreaded to think what would have happened if Atem hadn't been there. "My actions put Teddie's life in peril, and I can't make up for it. However, Bakura is still at large."

"Yeah." Yu said, showing the golf club bag he used to conceal his sword when they went to the TV. "We came prepared. Don't worry, we'll get him."

She looked around and saw that, indeed, everyone had brought their own weapons. Yosuke's shirt was puffed from the outline of his kunai, Kanji had a shopping bag with his folding chair inside, Chie had stockings that concealed her armored legs, and Yukiko… well, she had fans. However the hell that worked.

"Thank you." The detective said, going through how many bullets for her gun she had on her possession. "We shouldn't waste any more time."

The TV World. Physical manifestation of the human mind. Alternate universe ruled by sometimes arbitrary, if consistent rules. Quite the odd place.

Naoto never thought about how the sight of the TV studio-like yellow place connected to one of Junes's television screens was actually calming to her nerves. In the real world, all she had was her amazing brain and a five shooter. In here, she had the power of gods.

"All right, we sh-LOOK OUT!" Yosuke jumped to his feet, kunai ready and Jiraiya summoned behind him. "CAREFUL, NAOTO!"

She was confused at first, but then she noticed he was looking directly at Atem. The Pharaoh was bewildered trying to find the threat. A couple of seconds went by before he noticed that everyone was looking at him.

"Oh." He said, suddenly the center of attention. "This is unexpected."

"Who the hell are you?!" Chie said, startled. It also took Yu a few moments until he left his battle stance.

"You don't look like the enemy. Are you the Pharaoh Naoto was telling us about?" He asked. Chie, Yosuke and Kanji got noticeably more relaxed hearing their leader's reasonable assumption.

"Yes, that's correct. I am Atem. But you shouldn't be seeing me." He looked around, studying the place. "This world feels very… nostalgic, however."

"Like you've been here before?" Rise risked, a bit more comfortable than the others.

"Not exactly" He said, smiling "but close. I would like to accompany you on this journey, if there are no complaints."

Everyone's gaze turned to Naoto, whose gaze answered _He's trustworthy_ as perceived by Yu, _It's okay, he's cool_ as perceived by Kanji and Yosuke, and _I know, he's hot_ as perceived by everyone else. Whichever her actual intentions, no one seemed to mind Atem tagging along.

"Now that that's out of the way; Teddie, can you feel where he is?" Yu turned to the blonde, who had his eyes closed and was sniffing the air.

"Hm… no new dungeons, I think… are you getting anything Rise-chan?" He opened his eyes disappointed, turning to Rise. She already had Himiko working on it: the Persona's hands were covering her eyes and her hands were together as if in prayer. Unfortunately, her gaze wasn't any improvement over Teddie's.

"It's like… interference." She said, trying to put confusing feedback into words. "I can _feel_ something, but everything else tells me there's nothing new… it's so weird, I'm sorry guys."

"Well, this blows." Kanji said everyone's feelings. "How are we supposed to fight this Bakura dude if we can't find him?"

"We can exactly search in the TV World randomly…" Said Yukiko, looking grim. "What are we going to do now?"

No one had answers. Without Teddie and Rise's powers, they were stranded on the strange land. Wandering off without knowing exactly where to go was too dangerous.

"Perhaps I can be of assistance." Everyone looked at Atem while he took something out of his pocket. It was a deck of cards all-too familiar to everyone there.

"Is that… Duel Monsters?" Inquired Chie, absolutely confused. "But we can't play right now…"

"If my theory is correct, we won't have to." Atem closed his eyes, making an eye symbol appear on his forehead. A gush of wind seemingly from nowhere brushed his hair, levitating the cards around him. The Seekers of Truth watched baffled while all of the thirty cards on his deck circled around him in perfect orbits, creating six floating rings.

"How the hell…?" Yosuke started to say, but the best was yet to come. Finally opening his eyes, Atem looked at his cards and touched one with his pointer finger. The card started glowing in a yellow tone and spun of out its orbit, moving itself into a horizontal position in front of everyone.

The face-up card started to glow more, as if it had become a lantern, and a beam of light started materializing something on top of it. A round, red and purple caped man with a staff came out of the ray of light, happily floating over to Atem's side.

"It's a Time Wizard." Yu said, not really how to react to what he'd just seen.

"IT'S A TIME WIZARD!" Yosuke yelled, absolutely ecstatic over so much awesomeness.

"It's a Time Wizard!" Said Rise, wanting a plushie like that and looking at Kanji to confirm her pre-order.

"Incredible…" Naoto looked at it, asking herself why would a three thousand year old pharaoh summoning a creature from a children's card game be any more unreasonable than anything that happened last year. Somehow, she was having a tough time answering that.

"Time Wizard" Atem spoke, his voice heavy with layers of magic and power. "Use your powers to show us where Bakura went."

The little mage nodded happily, waving his cartoony wand twice before pointing it down. A ray of white light shot from its tip, quickly covering the entire floor they were all standing on with a layer of white magic. Suddenly, two circular footprints started forming. Soon, a replica of Teddie's body, albeit very white and faded, had appeared before all, and started to move to one of the corridors.

"Is this the extent of your power in this realm?" The Pharaoh asked, to which the Time Wizard complied. "Very well. Thank you for your assistance, my friend."

The creature spun on its place for a while before disappearing. Atem held his palm up, and all of the floating cards returned to their original position, with the Time Wizard card following suit.

Not exactly awkward, but still kind of awkward silence ensued.

"That was… amazing!" Chie broke the ice, as always. She was already right next to Atem with her hands together, the perfect portrayal of an excited fangirl. "How did you do that?! It was so awesome! It was a Time Wizard! That's one of my favorite cards! I beat Yosuke with one today!"

"Hey!"

Yu was observing the Teddie specter walking, leaving footprints on the ground if they lost sight of him. "Now we know where to go. Thank you, Atem."

"I am glad to be of assistance." He said, but his smile seemed forced. Something bothered him.

The scenario got darker and darker as they followed Bakura's trail. The featureless sky filled with fog was slowly being replaced by black, swirling lines of energy that kept getting thicker and plentiful as they advanced. Their surroundings stopped resembling a studio and started to look like a desert with sands that got damper with every step. There were dead trees that got increasingly more common and strange blob-like creatures that lurked from places too far away to chase them. It was probably the scariest thing Naoto had seen in weeks.

Atem had summoned a group of Kuriboh to try to entertain Rise and Teddie, but even _they_ looked scared. He thought it would be in bad taste to summon a Kuriboo, so he just left it at that. Yu was ahead of the team with Yosuke and Kanji, while Chie and Yukiko were covering the group's rear.

"You seem preoccupied with something, Pharaoh." Naoto pressed. His frown never faltered and his gaze looked conflicted.

"Yes." His voice wasn't tense, but he was obviously worried. "I've been thinking about it ever since I managed to summon my monsters here. I shouldn't be able to do that. Unless…"

"Unless?"

"Naoto, do you remember when I described Bakura's powers to you?"

"Yes. You said he could manipulate his and others' souls, and that he had control over something called the Shadow Realm."

"Well" The Pharaoh looked up. The swirling black lines covered everything now. "I thought I recognized this place, but something about the sensation was wrong. As we move forward, I am more and more convinced of my initial fears."

"Does it have something to do with this Shadow Realm?"

"Naoto" Atem met her gaze, and his eyes were as serious as they could get. "I am positive we _are_ on the Shadow Realm. Or, at least, something very similar to it. And if I can summon monsters with such ease… I dread to think of the powers Bakura must possess here."

* * *

Bakura was happy to notice that the Pharaoh had figured it out the implications of being on the physical manifestation of the Shadow Realm with him in charge. He was watching over the Seekers of Truth plus one from his throne room – it wasn't really a throne room, but after the reformations it would be the most exquisite throne room _ever_ – using a basin filled with dark energy. A basin filled with darkness. Read that again. That's how you know shit's going down.

He had thought about this ever since he read the boy's memories. Well, "boy." It was still rather confusing, even for the creature itself, but if Bakura had understood it correctly, Teddie or whatever his name was again who cares really was a creature born from darkness. As was every creature on that world. Such creatures, also known as Shadows, would then take arbitrary forms apparently based on human psychology. It wasn't exactly confusing, just somewhat exotic to him.

And yet the _feeling _of being on the Shadow Realm was so recognizable it almost brought a tear to his eye the first time he entered the place. It had been a couple of days before Teddie found the ring, the darned prison. He still had to carry it everywhere he went, but at least he could switch bodies more easily now. The world inside the TV welcomed one of the heralds of the dark arts as one of its masters. Bakura didn't really know who had created it in the first place – probably some sort of God, by the looks of architecture and dependency on human input – but it was amazing. Even without a vessel he had felt its pull. It was everything he wanted the real world to be.

Well, that dream would be fulfilled soon by the looks of it. He'd teased it to be by tomorrow, but looking at the works now, he would probably need a bit more time. But hey, he had still scared that girl the Pharaoh was hanging out with, so when you think about it, everything went as planned.

Now, about the team that still hadn't noticed they were going in circles…

_We're going in circles. Pharaoh, you seem to know this place better than…_

Oh? Well, the silver-haired boy was clearly the smartest one. He would have to die first.

Bakura didn't have to move to summon his dark powers on that realm, which made him feel more like a god than he'd ever felt before. He watched as the black and shapeless glob appeared in front of his eyes and increased in mass, completely disregarding any scientific process known to man at the time. Then it directed itself to inside the puddle of dark water-like darkness that showed the Investigation Team trying to figure out what the hell they should do.

It wasn't a throne room, as established, but the throne itself was already there and it _was_ quite comfy, so Bakura moved a little on his seat and-

_Squick!_

"Ugh" He moaned, annoyed. "I hate this bear suit."

* * *

From Naoto's perspective, it came from nowhere.

The sky was so black she didn't make out the stream of darkness slowly but surely leaving the atmosphere and coming right at them. But once it started actually taking _form_, she was indeed the first one to grab her weapon.

"Everyone, look out!" She shouted, suddenly aware of harder and faster gushes of wind that made sand fly right to her eyes. It wasn't strong enough to make communication difficult, but it was still a bad sign.

Rise's eyes were covered by Himiko's hands immediately, and Yu had Izanagi ready to roll out. Looking up wasn't easy because of the wind, which was slowly becoming a sandstorm, but they all still saw it.

It was a black, skinny-looking dragon, with red eyes and sporting menacing claws. Even Naoto could guess the name.

"Oh my god" Yosuke tried saying, but because of his amazement it came out as "ohhmg"

"It's the Red-Eyes Black Dragon!" Atem shouted, taking his deck out. The Pharaoh seemed way more distraught than simply afraid. "Damn you, Bakura! How dare you use Joey's monster?!"

Naoto didn't have time to ask what in the world he was talking about, she simply summoned Sukuna-Hikona. The little man flew his way to the dragon, suddenly powered by Yosuke's well-timed Sukukaja. Kanji and Yu ware trying their hardest to hit the enemy with Maziodyne, but even their most damaging area of effect moves could do nothing to the fast-moving dragon of darkness. When the detective's Persona finally made his way through the lightning storm and got close to the creature's neck, it simply blew it away with a well-timed hit from its tail, canceling the Tempest Slash Naoto had been planning.

Naoto felt Sukuna's pain on her _mind_, if you can understand that concept. A striking headache begun taking her senses apart, but she was used to it by now. The red-eyed dragon attacked Yukiko's flowery persona in full, which made the girl crumple to the ground in shock.

"Chie-chan, do it!" Rise informed Chie, who promptly summoned Tomoe's God's Hand to bring down the beast. The dragon's roars of pain hurt their ears, but it was evidence that the plan was working.

Yukiko quickly recovered and casted Agidyne on the Red-Eyes's face, trying to finish it off. Surprisingly, the dragon soared high again, even with half of his black skin burnt off, breaking Take-Mikazuchi violently while at that. Kanji screamed in agony, being soon healed by Teddie's timely assistance. It wasn't enough to bring him to full power again, but it was good enough to ease the pain.

It was getting harder and harder to see because of the sandstorm, but the group stood strong. While Yukiko tried healing Kanji more thoroughly, Teddie covered his eyes with his arms while mentally preparing his attack.

"Now you've done it!" Teddie's Kintoki-Douji appeared and threw his missile at the dragon's direction, which, instead of dodging, simply opened his mouth and destroyed the projectile with a sphere of energy. The sphere didn't stop there, either: it was directing itself to the group's leader. "Wh-SENSEI! LOOK OUT!"

Yu didn't have time to change his Persona, so he hoped Izanagi still had it in him for that. "ZIODYNE!"

Instead of the usual quick lightning, Yu's attack acted more like a continuous stream of electricity aimed directly to his target. He managed to stop the ball's motion, and dueled with the dragon to see who was the strongest. For a while, nobody except Atem moved.

Unfortunately, the dragon won. Yu's lightning beam was canceled by a sudden increase in power on the beast's projectile, which stunned him enough to bring him down. Izanagi tried taking the hit, but the Japanese god of thunder couldn't stand the blast and broke away, taking a part of Yu's strength with him. He still had enough time to call himself a fool for not starting the battle with a stronger Persona.

Instead of the painful death he expected, Narukami felt the wind change directions when the ball of energy was suddenly pushed aside. He looked up and stared breathless and the apparition.

It was a tall man dressed in purple armor. His blue staff was scorched on the side he used to forcefully push the blast of energy aside, and he had an aura of absolute power and wisdom to him. Of course Yu knew who it was.

"DARK MAGICIAN!" Atem shouted, card in hand. "DESTROY THE RED-EYES BLACK DRAGON!"

The wizard spread his arms wide and then brought them down forcefully, and from his body spread a shockwave that stopped the sandstorm. Everyone would be relieved for that alone if they weren't so tense because of the sheer awesomeness that they knew they were going to witness.

Dark Magician flew high, just as high as the dragon was now, and from his staff a ray of black light hit the target directly. The Red-Eyes Black Dragon tried to use the same attack as before, but the Magician's spell was far too strong for him. It would all soon be over.

* * *

"Well, so you want to have a little duel, huh Pharaoh?" Bakura smiled wryly, thinking he should have seen this coming. "Well, then a duel you will have. I think I'll activate…" Bakura summoned a black card out of thin air, musing over which effect to activate. It wasn't an official duel, of course, so he didn't have to play by so many rules. "Hm… ah, I know. I activate _Mirror Force_."

The card shined and entered the basin.

* * *

And suddenly things weren't going so great.

Something happened, and it took Atem too long to realize what it was. The wizard's attack had been cancelled. In fact, the beam of light that the Dark Magician had been firing at the Red-Eyes had been _turned against him_, with an invisible wall of light protecting the foul monster from its doom. Although the Magician managed to dodge the attack, all of the members of the Investigation Team were hit by its explosion when it hit the ground. The dragon took advantage from his astonishment and attacked the Magician with his own magic attack, with nothing on sight to protect the man.

The wizard took it in full, quickly descending from the skies and pummeling the earth right next to Atem. The Pharaoh was breathless and on his knees, feeling pain for something that Naoto thought was parallel to the feedback they got when their Personas were damaged.

The dragon approached quickly, and all she had time to do was to get Sukuna-Hikona in front of it. She was already turning to get Atem out of harm's way, but he actually drew another card.

"SWORDS OF REVEALING LIGHT!" The effect was instantaneous: approximately eleven swords made of bright light fell from the heavens and pierced the dragon's hide, and then its wings, and then its claws. It would have been gruesome if any blood had come out of it, but the dragon just roared and floated in place, seemingly unable to move. Atem turned to the Dark Magician, but it was already dissolving back to his deck.

Naoto didn't think about it, she just did what she knew would work. Hopefully.

A circle of runes and white cards appeared under the Red-Eyes Black Dragon's body, who noticeably tensed up. The same cards started flying upwards and spinning around its body, causing way more pain and discomfort than Naoto had ever seen a Shadow sustain.

"HAMAON!" They almost never shouted the attack's name, but it was like with Yu's Ziodyne. Spur of the moment, and it kind of _was _freaking awesome.

The cards suddenly stopped spinning, and the brightest light yet exploded from the center of the dragon's chest. He screamed, and then there was silence. The enemy was no more.

* * *

"Hm." Bakura was not amused. "Light-based magic. Interesting. I wasn't expecting that." Bakura's hand motion, which he did out of habit, summoned another card, sending it to the basin. "I hate surprises."

* * *

"Is everyone all right?" Rise asked, as she usually did after tough battles. Yu looked pretty roughed up, but he should be fine. Yukiko was already next to him casting Diarahan, while Chie was trying to help him up.

"Yeah, but… damn, that was tougher than expected." Said Yosuke, clinging to Teddie for support. "I mean, was that even a Shadow?"

"I dunno, but… it was kind of awesome." Kanji said half-smiling. He was trying to help Atem up. "You too, man. That Dark Magician guy was pretty cool."

"Thank you, Kanji…" Atem started saying, but he couldn't move without groaning. The battle had taken way more from him than what he thought it would. When he looked up, he saw all of the Investigation Team looking at him worriedly. "Don't worry, I am fine. Just a little rusty." He took Kanji's hand to get himself up again. There is something wrong with… all of this. If Bakura doesn't need cards to summon monsters, then we might be in greater danger than I could have imagined."

"I thought as much, but we're still in the game." Yu stood up, fully healed. His gaze met Naoto's and she understood it as _good job_. "Bakura surely didn't expect us to survive that."

"But, uh… does anyone else feel like you're being watched?" Yukiko was reluctant to talk about it, but Chie nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I'm getting major goose bumps here. It's like I'm in a room with Mitsuo." Yukiko gawked at her. "What? It's true." And then Yukiko chuckled.

"I feel _something_, but he's in complete control over this region of the TV World… there's nothing I can do to stop him from spying on us." Rise said, discouraged. "I mean, we could just… not talk, but that's not fun at all."

It happened so fast, Rise didn't even scream. It was already happening, actually, but no one had noticed yet.

"There's still the matter of getting to where we should go, which we don't even know where it is yet." Naoto's spoke the truth almost all the time, but being stated by a beautiful voice didn't make the truth any less of a chore. "But we can't exactly stop moving, either."

It was Kanji, of all people, who noticed the tiny hands grabbing Rise's ankles. At first he thought it was just an illusion created by sand and heat, but the more he kept staring at it, the more he was convinced that-

Rise was suddenly pulled straight through the ground. Kanji was next, not even able to put up a fight. The entire team reacted at once.

Yukiko yelled, frightened by her friends' sudden disappearance. She tried taking a step down, but feel down on her behinds. There were two hands grabbing her knees, and soon her arms. "CHIE! HELP!"

Chie tried helping, but larger, more powerful hands jumped from the ground and grabbed her shoulders. Both girls were swallowed by the black sands in seconds.

"Chie!" Yosuke panicked, summoning Jiraiya to blow the sands away, but their bodies weren't there anymore. Teddie was almost crying by his side.

"What's happening?! What's-" The boy was brutally interrupted by a purple blur of a monster jumping in front of him and dragging both Yosuke and Teddie down to the ground. "NO! NO, DON'T! NAOTO-CHAN, HELP ME!"

"Grab my hand, Teddie!" Atem tried to help, but it was too late. Naoto saw as the last of Teddie's tears were absorbed by the sands, along with the rest of his body.

"What IS this, Atem?" Naoto screamed, shooting the monstrosities with her gun. It didn't seem to be working, and they seemed to be taking their time dragging her down. She tried to shoot one that was already taking Yu, but it was in vain. He'd tried to fight, but her leader was gone.

"It's the Souls of the Forgotten… by Rah, what is wrong with Bakura?!" The Pharaoh tried summoning something, but a lightning-fast monster ripped the card from his hand. He screamed as the hot blood dripped on the desert.

It was just like when Izanami tried killing her friends, Naoto thought. Except now she didn't really know what she was up against. Hell, she didn't even know if they were _trying_ to actually kill her or just torturing them. She was alone with Atem, both already neck-deep in something that was most definitely _not_ sand.

"Atem…" She was breathless. My god, things had gone south really fast. "This…"

"Hold tight, Naoto." He said, managing to free one of his hands from the ground. While the rest of his body sank, Naoto saw a card being held by two of his fingers shining brightly. The light blinded her for a moment, and then she was underground.

_My life depends on that card_, she half-jokingly, half-not-even-aware-of-her-surroundings-anymore thought, and then Naoto passed out.

* * *

**So hey guys remember those bad cards on Bakura's deck that he never used but that still make for good titles? Well Yugiohwikia did apparently.**

**By the way, shoutouts to Minch for the story's first review! You sir are beautiful. I'm super bummed that I can't reply to your review without PMing you, but I just wanted to say thank you for the feedback, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter =D.**

**Okay I'll stop breaking your immersion now geez.**


	4. Black Hole

_Wake up, Naoto._

"Hmmm." She grumbled and moved a bit to the side. The breeze coming from the window was very nice.

_Naoto. Wake up._

She sighed. Was it really so late that someone had to come into her room to wake her? She was just so tired.

Why was she tired, again?

_Naoto. Naoto! _"NAOTO, WAKE UP!"

Her eyes opened up to stare at the huge cliff she was leaning towards. She rolled away from it and got up immediately.

"Pharaoh?" Naoto asked, looking around. "Where are you?"

"Down here."

Naoto looked down and felt her blood sugar rising from an overdose of cuteness.

"What is this?" She stared at the little pink ball of fur with two little antennae coming out of its body. "Why are you…"

"It's not me" He rushed, his voice sounding incredibly unfitting for the creature. "I summoned Watapon and other monsters to look for you and our friends. We got separated, but I'm close to you."

"Oh." She finally remembered what happened. "Oh! What happened to the others? What _was_ that attack?"

"Follow the Watapon." He said, hopping adorably to the east. Naoto start following it, but eventually just picked it up and followed its directions. "It was the Souls of the Forgotten. Bakura must have summoned it after we beat his monster."

"But I thought the Souls of the Forgotten was a very weak card?" The Watapon looked at her with one of its antennae raised higher than the other, which she thought signified that Atem was raising his eyebrow. "Yosuke has it on his deck and I overheard him discussing strategies with Kanji once."

"Hm." If Atem thought anything about that, he never voiced his thoughts. Instead he changed the subject. "Listen Naoto, I owe you an apology. I never thought it would come to this."

"Isn't Bakura always like this?"

"Perhaps I'm giving him too much credit, but… there's something different. It's like he's trying to prove something this time." The Watapon's eyes closed as Atem spoke. "I must admit, I don't know what to do, exactly."

"I think I see you."

"Yes, me too." The Watapon jumped from her hand and became a ray of light, then went back to Atem. "I'm glad you're not hurt."

"Don't worry , Pharaoh." Naoto said, smiling. "I think it's safe to assume we've both beaten worse threats than Bakura. It's going to be all right."

It seemed to work. Atem's frown lines softened significantly and his posture got straight again. Naoto hadn't even noticed this was affecting him so much.

"Yes. You're right."

"Now" Naoto continued, business mode activated. "I can't see anything other than sand from here. You said you had other monsters looking for the rest of the team?"

"Yes. Don't worry, I'm sure they are-" A ray of light directing itself to Atem's pocket interrupted their conversation. Atem's teeth clenched as five other beams came from multiple directions, each one finding its way to his concealed deck. The pharaoh looked like he would lose balance for a moment, but he managed to keep himself together.

"Were those… the monsters?" Naoto asked out of formality. And now even more was wrong.

"Yes. Something destroyed them, and I didn't even… _argh_." He clenched his heart like he was having a mild heart attack. The detective moved closer to him and noticed how much he was sweating. The man was also shaking vigorously and was having a tough time not collapsing on the ground.

"You need medical attention."

"No, I'm fine, I…"

"_Atem_." Naoto knew she sounded harsh, but the situation was getting bad. She hadn't considered the effects the TV World could have on Atem, even if he didn't seem affected by the fog. "You are on the verge of passing out. We find Teddie and we get you out of here _now._"

"_You are not my master, young lady._" Said Atem's voice, distorted and coming from nowhere.

She didn't have to check Atem's face for a reaction to hearing his voice outside of his body. Naoto knew what was going on. She hadn't seen it in action as much as, say, Yosuke, but it was still obvious.

"I should have known." She said to herself, almost cursing. It was so simple. Of course this was happening.

Atem was inside the TV. It doesn't matter if he isn't in a human body right now.

"_Isn't that right, O Atem, great King of Games?_" The Shadow's voice was pouring with sarcasm. Naoto couldn't see his face, but she knew he was smiling.

"Pharaoh" She said, quickly. "Whatever happens, don't deny his words."

"What?"

"He is a creature that strengthens itself by feeding on your negativity towards yourself. If he says something, there's _some_ true to it. We can't afford to fight him now!"

"_Hmpf. Coward._" Shadow Atem was basically spitting poison with his tone. Apparently the notion that someone would deny his challenge was offensive to him, even if he hadn't said anything about it yet. "_I wouldn't say you have much of a choice, Ms. Shirogane. You are not going anywhere I don't want you to go._"

It was then that something appeared on the horizon. Like a mirage, swirling lines of heat gave place to a blurred image, which grew clearer. It was a gigantic, upside-down black pyramid, adorned with the Millennium Puzzle's eye symbol. Naoto had seen the other dungeons before, but this one was downright _evil_ looking. And not nearly as groovy as her super-secret base, but she would never say that out loud.

"I will not be swayed by your will, creature." Atem said, his usually commanding voice trying its hardest to sound as convincing as he needed to right now. "You have no power over us!"

The Shadow didn't answer. Instead, yellowish walls adorned with hieroglyphs rose by their sides and to their back, creating a corridor that led straight to the pyramid's entrance.

"_I challenge you to a duel, Pharaoh._" The Shadow finally said, any resemblance to sarcasm on his voice replaced by calm aggressiveness. "_A duel to the death. This isn't negotiable. I will be waiting._"

The voice was no more, along with Naoto's hope of ending things quickly. She knew how it worked.

"Are you able to walk?" She asked as kindly as she could. She didn't know if that was Yukiko-level, but he nodded. "Then let' s go. If you're too weak to fight, I'll support you."

"I am fine." Atem said, straightening his back. He was obviously not fine. "But I will need you to walk me through the details. I'm not sure I understand exactly what is going on."

"It is quite all right." She said, smiling tiredly. "I don't think anyone does."

* * *

"Chie, get off me!"

"Hm… sooo hungry…"

"CHIE, GOD DAMN IT!"

"WHA~~!" The spunky schoolgirl woke up startled, her mouth around someone's arm. Her gaze met with Yosuke's, whose eyes expressed pain, embarrassment, and a weird sense of arousal that he would probably need therapy to fully understand. "AH! Yosuke! I'm so sorry!"

"Just stop biting me!" He cried, pulling his arm out of her mouth as soon as her grip loosened. By God the woman's jaw was strong. "What is it with you and biting me anyway?! "

"But I'm hungry!" She tried saying on her defense, but it didn't work for that at all. "You're the one who's always falling on top of me!"

"Fine! Whatever! We have more important things to do here!" Both of them rose to their feet to find themselves in the middle of the black desert. "Where are we?"

"I think we're lost." Chie replied. "I mean, what happened again? There was…"

"Something grabbed us? I don't know, it was weird. But I think someone saved us, I felt this really warm light…"

"Oh yeah, I remember that." She said, smiling. "A bright light and then I was… uh, yeah, and then I was here. Aaand nothing happened after that…"

Yosuke sighed. "How are we gonna get anywhere without Teddie and Rise? This place's in the middle of nowhere…"

"Well, at least we've got each other, right?" Yosuke just stared at her. "Yeah, you're right, we're screwed."

The couple started to walk on any random directing after some more bickering. It didn't take long for Chie to notice that they weren't getting anywhere, and that it was really hot on that desert.

"Gosh, it's so hot." As we've established. "Yosuke, can't you use Analysis like Rise-chan or something? I mean it can't be that hard…"

"You know Chie, I never actually tried." He said, summoning his Persona. The disco ninja frog looked tired too, hunch backing and panting even though it didn't need to breath. "C'mon, Jiraiya, I could really use some help here."

Jiraiya looked around, as confused as Yosuke was, until finally giving up and shrugging.

"Ugh… can you at least fly upwards to see if there's anything or anyone ahead?"

The apparition flew up high, until Yosuke lost sight of it. He could still feel his Persona nearby, of course, but visual contact was lost. It was really weird, he'd never experienced that before.

"Hey Chie, can you summon Tomoe to hel-" He turned around and watched as Chie made Tomoe use her naginata as a giant fan.

"Oooh yeah, that's the stuff." He really envied how the girl had the uncanny ability to just lay back and enjoy the little pleasures of life, even in the direst of situations. "Said anything, Yosuke?"

"I…" He started saying something, but stopped. "Just move aside, it's really hot. Hey, can't you make a giant block of ice to put in front of us too?"

* * *

The first floor on a dungeon was usually relatively easy. Naoto had a theory about it: basically, stronger Shadows actually prey on weaker ones, for supremacy if not for nutrition. When a new dungeon is formed, all manner of Shadow are born with it, and some others are attracted by it. Meaning there would always be Shadows that didn't really fit the theme of the dungeon, but were still strong enough to fight their way there.

She couldn't prove it, of course, since she would have to study the habits of Shadows in many dungeons for weeks to get all the data, and the basic theory has some flaws to it. That being said, unless Atem was secretly self-conscious about his body image, there was no reason for that random Daring Gigas to be in the Black Pyramid.

At least it was alone. The detective could dispatch it easily with Hamaon, if the damn thing worked. When it didn't work twice – which annoyed her to no end every time – she just cast Megidola on its face. The Shadow imploded spectacularly.

"Impressive." Atem said, clinging to a wall.

"Are you okay?" He clearly wasn't, but she had to keep him calm in case he had a breakdown. She knew what it was like to be in a place like this. Your feelings never acted the way you wanted them to.

"I'm not sure." The Pharaoh stood on his both feet and started walking forward, pulling a card from his pocket. "Let me try something."

The card shined for a couple of seconds. A green jar and a glass materialized themselves in front of Atem, the jar spilling its blue contents on the glass. The duelist drank the blue liquid, and a warm light emanated from his body. The apparition disintegrated shortly afterwards.

"As I thought" He said, looking better. "I am weak because of my Life Points."

"Life… Points?" Naoto knew about the concept as applied to the game, but hadn't considered the possibility of them affecting Atem outside of a duel. "You mean you use your own life to summon your cards on this world?"

"Apparently. This card was Blue Medicine; it gives me 400 Life Points. I don't know how that would translate to our situation, but… I feel a bit better already."

"_Yes_." The Shadow's voice was loud and sarcastic as always. "_I feel better indeed. Thank you for that, King of Games dearest._"

Naoto grit her teeth as the fog started to get thicker. She had noticed Atem had no problems seeing through it, and, indeed, it was a different feeling from the last time she'd been there, but it was still just as dangerous. She could hear the hordes of Shadows getting closer and closer.

"I think you just made him more powerful."

"Sorry." The way he made it sound like a puppy's embarrassed plea made her smile playfully, but then she saw the army of creatures coming their way. They weren't like any Shadow she'd ever seen – probably that dungeon's own breed. "Are those… Kuribohs?"

They were furry flying balls with yellow, aggressive eyes. There were dozens of them coming their way. Even if they didn't look very powerful, Naoto sure as hell couldn't handle them all and fend for Atem at the same time.

"Let's go." She said, grabbing his wrist and running. "We have to go to the next floor!"

She could hear Shadow Atem's chuckling reverberating on the whole floor. She fully expected Atem to actually say the words, of course – everyone did. And then she would gladly fight this bastard.

_I'm starting to think like Kanji._

"Naoto? Why are you laughing?"

* * *

Teddie wasn't having a great time right now.

He woke up alone and bruised on the black desert, with no idea where he was. He cried for a while, but eventually started moving forward. Then he started crying and moving forward at the same time.

"Senseeeeei!" His pleas were heard by no one, and that only made his despair grow stronger. What was he going to do now? "Naoto-chan? Rise-chan? Yosuke-kun? Anyone?"

It hadn't worked on the last eight times he called for help, and it didn't seem to work then.

"This is bad…" The boy was starting to get desperate. His Analysis skills weren't as well developed as Rise's, and he had been walking for hours. What if he couldn't find anyone else? What if… "Wait."

He started sniffing at thin air, eyes closed. Had it been his imagination?

"It's…" Another big sniff. He was sure it wasn't just his mind playing tricks. "IT'S MY SUIT!"

The boy started running towards the smell. His suit was nearby, which meant Bakura was, too.

"If he can separate us all, then he can brings us back together! I'll just have to beat him!" Talking to himself was a weird habit, but no one ever told him that. He roared adorably and kept running.

* * *

"Huh. Flash of the Forbidden Spell." Bakura said to himself as he watched the last of his current monsters dying. "I wasn't expecting him to have that card. His deck makes no sense, so I'm guessing the Pharaoh is just drawing extra cards he's got on his pocket."

The construction of his base of operations continued, but the plan to annihilate those petulant children went wrong. Now they had been split for some reason. Maybe the Enigma's magic boosted the card's original power? Atem had to be at least tired for using magic of this caliber.

Whatever it was, he couldn't get a hold of all of them anymore. He could see some of them – the bear-boy was actually running towards his castle's general direction. He could see the girl with the green attire and the pretty boy with the kunai, but they were too far away from Teddie to help him right now. He couldn't see the buff delinquent, the leader, the brunette, the redhead or the Pharaoh and his friend, although he could probably guess why those last two were missing.

If he understood the laws of that world, Atem's presence should have created a Shadow version of him. The creature's power was probably interfering with his own. On the bright side, maybe Shadow Atem could take care of Naoto and the Pharaoh for him. There were more pressing matters at hand, anyway.

He watched as Teddie ran straight to his castle. The boy would arrive on a couple of minutes to the front door, where he would be promptly be put down by the powerful Shadows there. Bakura was ashamed to admit that summoning all those monsters and spells at once took quite the tool on him, and he probably couldn't summon something stronger than Teddie right now.

At least not without sacrifices.

* * *

The third floor was smaller than the other ones, but Naoto was too experienced at this point to think that this was a good sign. She'd visited the other dungeons for training with the rest of the team, and the ones she had participated on the group's first run confirmed the pattern.

If the floor was small, then there was a "boss", as Yosuke called them. She had managed to take care of some of that horde of Angry Kuribohs, but without supplies and a supporting party, Naoto didn't know if facing a boss was a good idea. Especially if it was weak against something like wind or fire.

To make matters worse, Atem was still too weak. He could barely run, much less summon monsters or other cards. Naoto feared that if he summoned something strong enough, the man would have a convulsion. The situation was way too out of hand. As a silver lining, there were usually little to no Shadows on floors that contained bosses, so they were probably safe to rest for a while.

"I apologize for not being much help." He sat down on the floor, sweating. His hand automatically went to his pocket, but Naoto stopped him before he grabbed anything.

"You are not going to resist using another card, and you know that." Atem looked like he wanted to complain, but decided not to. "There's a powerful enemy on this floor. I will deal with it. Stay here."

He watched as her back got more and more far away, until he was alone. He'd seen that image more times than he would have liked.

"_As always, you just don't fit in, huh?_"

"What did you just say?" The voice was everywhere, and yet it came from nowhere. It was as if the air itself was talking.

_"__What did you honestly expect? You thought you would come here, replace your old friends immediately and save the world again? I mean, please. You're smarter than that."_

"I'm not paying attention to you."

"_I think you are, Pharaoh. Actually, I _know_ that you are. You want to know how I know that?_"

This was a trap that he wouldn't fall into.

"You're just trying to trick me. You want me to say…"

"_Yes?_" It had no mouth, but it was smiling. Atem could feel that.

"I won't, you idiot." The fog was getting thicker, but it wasn't getting any harder to breath. He could faintly hear gunshots and summoning noises from afar. "We will win and then-"

"_And then what?_" The interruption was abrupt, the voice noticeably louder. "_She'll keep you and you'll just stick around? You go home with her, she'll wear the Enigma as a memento, take it to her cases all over the world?_"

"I…"

"_You are lying to yourself if you think any of these people are going to want you around after all of this is done. This is their group. You are not needed here."_

"This isn't about groups…" He was already sweating bullets before, but now suddenly he felt like his clothes were too packed and too small for him. He just wanted it to stop.

"_You're right; this is about you, isn't it? This is about you not being useful anymore, so no one wants you for long. I mean, come on, do you think Naoto told you to stay here because she cares that much for your health?_"

The Pharaoh didn't answer. He also didn't know if it _was_ becoming hard to breath or if his chest was on fire because of stress alone.

"_She did it because you would get in the way. Like you always do."_

"That's not…" He stopped himself, but barely. In his heart, he knew the creature was right. He wasn't needed here. He wasn't needed anywhere. He was just-

"_A ghost from a time long dead."_ It could real his thoughts. That wasn't good. "_People just want to move on with their lives and you drag them down like the rusty anchor that you are."_

"SHUT UP!" Atem didn't remember the last time he let himself get so angry. The Shadow knew every word that would get a reaction out of him, and the Pharaoh couldn't even cover up his ears to defend himself. "What would YOU know about me?!"

"_That's a very stupid move, Pharaoh. After all, I am you…"_

He yelled at nothing, the fog so thick he could barely see anything.

"_… __and you are me."_

_Don'tsayitdon'tsayitdon'tsayitDON'TSAYIT_

To his credit, he didn't. He did the next stupidest thing. Atem got up on his foot and started running down the corridor. He couldn't see what was in front of him, but he could hear the sounds of battle getting closer. Atem could also hear the chuckles of his Shadow like they were right next to him.

The fog finally cleared when he reached an arena-like camber. It was rectangular, like an old Kaiba Corps Duel Monsters Hologram Machine from back in the day. Except the tower-like structures the duelists usually stayed on weren't there, and Naoto was fighting on the center of the field. The same field looked like it would if someone had just used a Yami Field Spell. Pure darkness.

The enemy was a literal flying giant card, maybe four meter tall. One side was brown with a black hole on the center. The other side was a damp grey tone, lifeless and boring. He saw other smaller cards flying around, and deduced that they came from him.

Naoto wasn't really outmatched. She could one-shot most of the smaller cards with her handgun, and Sukuna-Hikona was casting Tempest Slash at the larger target. It was spinning wildly and was probably going to die very soon.

She didn't even need his help. No reason to even keep him around.

"GAIA THE FIERCE KNIGHT!" He raised his card and the giant knight was summoned almost instantly. Almost at the same time his heart started beating harder than it ever had. "DESTROY THE ENEMY!"

She finally noticed him there. Naoto looked puzzled, and took a few seconds to say anything as she stared at the monster preparing its lance. "Pharaoh? What are you-" The Shadow interrupted her with a Blight attack that came in the form of a spear coming out of its grey area. The detective took the hit in full.

Gaia finally reached the target, even if it was too late. The knight's lance impaled with great power, most surely destroying the card.

Except it didn't. Instead, the grey area became black like the void of space. It was a last, desperate attempt to bring down everyone.

"Great Rah" The Pharaoh said when he noticed what he had just unleashed. "It's a Black Hole."

The warrior was promptly sucked in the creature's final attack, which was still going strong. Atem's strength left his soul and he had nothing to grab on. His body felt weightless as he was pulled towards his doom.

He felt a small hand grabbing his ankle. Sukuna-Hikona had carved its sword on the ground and had Atem and Naoto holding on to its tiny body. None of them thought that they could realistically survive the attack like that, of course.

The Pharaoh had no more power. No more energy. No more will to fight. He just let his body go limp and closed his eyes.

The Shadow was right. He was useless.

* * *

_MAZIODYNE!_

From Naoto's perspective, Yu's scream came out of nowhere, and a storm brewed directly above the target. Some of the strong lightning bolts almost hit her, but she assumed he had some way to direct the charge. She as least hoped so.

Some of the electricity was absorbed by the Black Hole, but some of it hit it in its back. It was the advantage of high-damaging area of effect skills. The Great Spell Card finally exploded in a twisted purple fog, right at the same time that Sukuna-Hikona's resistance gave in and it disappeared from exhaustion. Naoto felt the biggest headache she had felt that week as she fell to the ground.

The detective looked at the corridor that connected the floor's entrance to the arena, and she was glad to find Yu and Rise there. Behind Yu, Izanagi floated majestically with its great weapon in hand. Both the persona-users were pretty roughed up. Rise's skirt was a dirty shade of brown and grey, and her forehead had some dried blood on it. One of her uniform's sleeves had also been ripped off.

Yu, on the other hand, had apparently lost his sword's sheath. His pants were damaged on the knees and his open jacket had been burned by something. They were both unscratched, though.

"Narukami-san, Rise-san." Naoto whispered. "I am glad to see you are well. But I believe that Blight poisoned me." She could feel it in her veins. Breathing was getting harder and her vision grew blurry.

"Don't move, you two." Yu summoned a blue card and smashed it on his hand. Izanagi disappeared, replaced by a scantily dressed blond with a large pair of horns. Her Leader didn't use Ishtar much, since they always had Yukiko to heal everyone and his spiritual energy was important for most damaging spells, but this was a special occasion. She felt relief wave through her body as Mediarahan brought her back to good health. Nothing they could do about anyone's energy, though. "I'm glad to see you both made it. It was through sheer luck that I found Rise."

"Yeah… we both landed near each other." The idol said, obviously worried. "I can't feel where Bakura is, but I felt the new dungeon right away. It's weird… I think it was only created after we left Bakura's influence, or maybe… I don't know. I don't know what's going on anymore…" The situation was taking its toll on their supporter, that's for sure. Naoto could see that she blamed herself for not seeing the sneak attack coming.

But she would comfort her friend later. Right now she was reasonably annoyed at Atem.

"Pharaoh, what was that?" She said, her tone of voice not making very clear just how close they were from dying because of Atem's interference. "I asked you to wait on the corridor!"

He didn't answer.

Naoto's frown deepened. His body's wounds were fine now, but…

Oh, his spiritual energy. His Life Points. That powerful monster had just…

"Atem?" She got closer to his body and felt her heart rate skyrocket when she noticed just how cold it was. "Atem!"

Yu and Rise drew closer. She got Himiko out and started scanning the man, and Yu tried casting Samarecarm and Amrita. They didn't work.

"He's alive, but he's so weak… guys, I don't think…" Her voice cracked a bit, the verge of desperation obvious on her tune.

Naoto shook the Pharaoh's body again. She didn't know if it was the consecutive healing spells, but some color returned to his face. The way the man opened his eyes made it crystal clear that his whole body was experiencing severe pain, even if he was physically fine.

"N-Naoto…? I… I-"

"Don't talk." She was quick to intervene. "We need to…" She was going to say _get you out of here_, but everyone on the room knew that it wasn't an option.

"I'm fine…" Naoto almost didn't hear him say anything. He repeated it twice until get got enough strength to say it louder. "I'm fine. I… I am the King of Games, the Nameless Pharaoh, I will… not be defeated so easily…" The forced bravado was extremely out of character, and Naoto just assumed he was a bad liar.

Atem even tried getting up, but fell to the ground again, this time clenching his heart. The man was done.

"_You didn't even make it here, and yet you've already lost our duel."_ Shadow Atem's voice had no malice or mockery on its tone. It was instead filled with pure contempt. "_Pathetic. No wonder everyone lets you go… you can't even hold yourself without parasitizing on someone else."_

"That's not true… it's not…" He was mumbling more to himself than to his counterpart, but it could still hear it.

"_It is. And you know it. In fact-_"

"ENOUGH WITH YOU!" Naoto's patience was over. She was gazing at the ceiling like it could gaze back at her. "Listen to me _very carefully_, because I am not one to repeat myself. My friend is on the brink of death because of you. Before, destroying you was my job. Now it's my priority."

She got on her foot and spoke louder, even if she didn't need to.

"I am Naoto Shirogane, member of the greatest Shadow hunting team on the planet. We have beaten Ameno-Sagiri. We have slayed a goddess of Creation. We have killed countless of your kind. You may think you are in a position of power right now, but let me make this _very_ clear: To us – _to me_ – you are _nothing _but another target that will go down in _minutes_."

For a couple of seconds that felt like hours, there wasn't a single sound on the room. Probably not on the whole pyramid. When Shadow Atem talked again, his voice was much more sober. Like someone had just slapped him in the face.

"_Naoto Shirogane_" He said, his emotions a complete mystery. "_I challenge _you_ to a duel._"

The door to the next floor was already unlocked, but he opened them up. It was an invitation.

"_You will find little resistance through the next floors._" The next line had some of the smug attitude back, but it had something else. Some sort of fighting spirit that equaled a gladiator's. "_I will be waiting patiently._"

And he was no more. Naoto's blood was pumping like it hadn't since the end of last year's case. That had also probably been one of her best speeches, so kudos to her for that.

"Naoto" Yu started saying, his jaw trying to reach the floor. "That was…"

"SO AWESOME!" Even in mortal danger, Rise was still as excited about everything as ever. "OHMYGOD YOU SHOWED HIM!"

She adjusted her cap, but that couldn't hide the heavy blush on her cheeks and the delighted little smile on her lips.

"Narukami-san" She tried sounding neutral and formal, but her voice was still urgent. Atem's situation was not getting any better. "I am sorry for asking, but do you think you can carry the Pharaoh? He's too heavy for me."

"Of course." He said, putting Atem on his back with some help from the girls. "So what now, Shironage-sensei?"

_Oh, I am never going to live this down._

_Might as well go along._

"My friends," Naoto said, skillfully spinning her gun on her pointer finger. "We have a Shadow to take down."

* * *

_You know what gets in the way of writing? Real life. Yeah, sorry._

_I'm having some trouble with the formatting options on the site. I don't feel like these horizontal rules are that appealing to the eye. Oh well. _

_But yeah, if you've come this far, you know why the title of the chapter is _Black Hole._ It was kinda difficult to pick too, because I kinda wanted to make it relevant without being too obvious. _

_So I'm not continuing the thing where I thank people by their names on the end, because I found out how to answer to reviews. So now I can thank you individually for your dashingly good looks and for being an amazing person and reviewing stuff! Please get excite._


	5. Hall of the Fallen

"BEEEEARSONA!"

Do I really need to tell you what's going on with Teddie right now?

After the battle, Teddie had to say goodbye to the trademark rose on his lapel. It had unfortunately perished during the fight, and it would be always remembered until the exact moment he put another shirt on.

Bakura's castle wasn't really finished. It was a tall building surrounded by other two structures which weren't really towers in the European sense Teddie was used to. Behind the castle proper there was a large obelisk being built, but Teddie didn't need to go there. There were a lot of ordinary Slime Shadows working tirelessly to put rocks in place, painting and scolding each other for slacking off. In fact, none of them had even noticed Teddie until he walked all the way to the stairs. Most of them were pushovers, so he had no trouble dispatching the creatures.

His suit was close. He could feel it.

In retrospect, Teddie should have thought about how dangerous it would really be to storm into the enemy headquarters alone like that. Without his claws, Kintouki-Douji was his only means of defense, which put him in a dangerous situation, as all of his skills were magic. Summarizing, everything he was doing could be described as A Bad Idea.

That being said, he loved his bear suit.

"I FOUND YOU!" He pointed dramatically towards Bakura, who was sitting on his almost-completed throne room.

It was pretty big for a throne room, too. From the exit, it was a circular chamber with a fashioned stone chair on the middle. There was an ebony basin by its side, but the rest of the room seemed eerily empty. It wasn't even at the highest point of the castle or in a tower, which, while nice for Teddie's legs – apparently the Egyptians didn't invent practical elevators – was really odd.

"Yes." The voice that came out of his suit wasn't his own, something he would never get used to. "You have indeed."

"Give me back my bear suit, you faker! KINTOUKI-DOUJI!" The round and armed hero of legend appeared before Teddie, atomic bomb ready for deployment. "Or I'll blow up this whole thing!"

"I see."

There was silence for a moment, and Teddie never really stopped pointing. Bakura sat there for a while just smiling.

"So?!"

"So what?"

"My suit! Give it to me!"

"Oh, that. I'm using it."

"Well!" Teddie threw a minor tantrum, quickly recovering his Objection! Pose. "Then stop using it! I want it!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that right now."

Teddie hated this guy.

"I'll get that suit back even if I have to fight you to do it!"

"Ah, so you're willing to fight, eh?" Bakura got up, still smiling. "What if I told you that you _can_ have your suit back, without a scratch, and without wasting your precious energy?"

That took Teddie by surprise. Maybe he was wrong about this guy? Or maybe it was a trap?

"I… I don't believe you! You're evil!"

"Perhaps. But I am quite fair, and I am in no position to trick you, since I am powerless right now." Teddie expression was a confused caricature of a child. "Why, didn't you notice? Both I and the Pharaoh use our own life energy to summon monsters. I am as tired as he is, and am in no position to resist your powerful blows."

"Oh yeah?" Teddie started saying, his conviction leaving his voice. "Well, I… I guess I wouldn't be much of a hero if I attacked someone so weak as you are…"

"Oh, you are just so honorable. Your friends must admire you greatly."

"They do!" The bear-child was smiling with glee, excited to find someone who agreed with him. "And I owe it all to Sensei!"

"I see. But, back to the matter at hand, I mentioned a way to end this predicament without senseless bloodshed. If you'll allow me." He raised his paw and a spark of energy appeared. Teddie went back to his fighting stance, but Bakura asked for him to calm down. "Don't worry. See? It's just cards."

Indeed, he had just summoned a couple of Duel Monsters cards. Teddie didn't smell anything wrong with them, and Bakura wasn't using them to summon anything. His bear suit smiled back at him with a kind of malice that the young boy, unfortunately, did not understand.

"Have you ever played a game called Duel Monsters?"

* * *

"I'm sorry."

Yu turn his head slightly to look at Atem, even if he really couldn't at this angle. The man had been sleeping for the past half hour. His voice was still creaky and weak, even if he wasn't sweating so much anymore.

"Naoto?" The Leader called for the detective, who was checking the next corridor. "He's come to."

"Let's take a break, then."

He let Atem go carefully, thanking Rise for her help as she helped the pharaoh sit down on the ground. She immediately summoned Himiko and went back to trying to guide the others to the Black Pyramid.

"Found anyone else, Rise?" Yu asked, kneeling close to Atem.

"I think I found Kanji-kun and Yukiko-chan, but their signal is weak… I think I can talk to them, though."

"All right, do that." He watched as she stated whispering to their friends, and then moved his attention to Atem as Naoto drew closer. "How are you feeling?"

"I am _so_ sorry." Atem's head was low, but he know that it wasn't because of his diminished strength. "I… I don't know why I acted so foolishly."

"It's all right, Pharaoh." Naoto kneeled too, putting her hand in his shoulder. "That's what Shadows do. All of our friends have felt the same thing."

"But I almost got us both killed." His eyes never met hers, being either focused on the floor or closed. "You must want to get rid of me as soon as possible now."

"What? No." The flat tone on her voice made Yu want to smile. "Why would I want that?"

He never answered. Naoto grabbed his chin delicately and made him look at her.

"I mean it, Atem. Why would we get rid of you?" Naoto thought she was getting better at this pep talk thing. Maybe she should look into a career in therapy.

"It's…" She wasn't sure if he'd stopped himself or if he didn't know what to say. In a couple of moments, it didn't matter either way.

"_He never actually told you, right?" _

"Not now." Yu muffled under his breath. They really couldn't afford to get Atem more stressed.

"_You really believed that story about Yugi being a teacher back at the Duel Academy?"_

Naoto didn't answer. Instead, she kept looking at the Pharaoh. He never looked directly at her.

"_You keep talking about drawing strength from your bonds and all of that stupidity, but how much do you even know him?"_

The voice stopped, as it had already damaged everyone's trust enough. Himiko's hands left Rise's eyes, and they were noticeably sad.

"Pharaoh… you don't have to hide anything from us." She said, moving closer to him. "I know some things may be too personal, but we're all on this together. You have to let us help you."

Atem's face was still exhausted, but his eyes still had some determination to them when he raised his head.

"Very well." His voice wasn't as firm as he would have liked, but there was an evident feeling of acceptance on it. "I shouldn't have withheld the truth like that from you in the first place. Especially you, Naoto." He looked straight at her for the first time, and also for the first time Naoto really _stared_ into his eyes. They were the oldest part of his body. Like two purple pools of thousands of years of fighting. "I am ashamed to admit that I lied to you."

"It's okay. Just tell us what he's talking about."

* * *

"C'mon senpai, you heard Rise." Kanji told Yukiko, who was resting on his chair. It always bothered him when someone else sat on his weapon, but she really needed it.

"I know, I'm going. I just… wish this would just end." The brunette looked as tired as someone would look after having to heal Kanji three times in a row. That was the disadvantage of attacking primarily with physical skills. "Let's go. Thank you for letting me use your chair."

"No problem." He got his weapon back and they started walking on the direction Rise pointed them towards. "Just hope that Atem guy is okay. If they're in his dungeon that means his Shadow is there too, right?"

"Yeah… but he's with Yu-san, so I'm sure it will be fine. I hope Chie's not alone, though…"

"Hey hey, don't worry 'bout it." He tried sounding reassuring, but that didn't work, so he just went back to his usual grumpy tune. "She's a big girl, she can take care of herself just fine. It's Teddie I'm more worried about. Guy looked pretty lost on this desert."

None of them was on their best shape. Yukiko had lost one of her fans – which made her really sad, since it was one of her favorites – and her sweater had holes everywhere. Her hair was also a mess. Because of her healing spells she had no big wounds, but her energy was running out. Kanji, on the other hand, had a hole on his shoe of all things. He also decided to put on his jacket instead of balancing it on his shoulders against all laws of physics, since it was actually getting colder. His chair had also started creaking, which told him it was about time to change it. Her. However he referred to it.

"Rise-chan told us she was trying to get a hold on Chie and Yosuke, right? Maybe they're together."

"Yeah, they're probably bickering like an old couple right about now if that's the case. Tch." Kanji spit a bit of blood on the ground and acted like it was nothing. "Just kiss already, y'know?"

"K-Kiss?" The fair Asian lady slapped his shoulder hard, almost getting something out of its place.

"OW! Not you, senpai! Them! THEM!"

"Oh… sorry." She blushed a little, but Kanji ignored it. "It's weird thinking about that."

"I guess. But they're kinda cute together." She raised a confused eyebrow at the buff young man. "They fight an' stuff. Like in the doramas. Those guys who fight always end together, right?"

"You… watch doramas, Kanji-kun?"

Kanji started blushing uncontrollably. He started walking faster and looking straight forward.

"Let's just get to the damn pyramid, okay senpai? Geez."

"I guess…"

* * *

It wasn't all a lie, Atem tried reasoning to himself. No one had ever actually asked him the right questions, is all. Everything he said was the truth, if only somewhat.

It was true that Yugi was a professor at the Duel Academy back at Domino City. Therefore, it was also true that he was too busy to help with this crisis.

They never asked if they still talked to each other.

"Yugi… he moved on." Talking about it was way more embarrassing than he had anticipated. But by Rah, he was Atem the Nameless, with complete understanding of how paradoxical that sounded, and he would do it. "We were the best team ever. We solved every crisis; we worked together towards victory… and one day, we dueled for my freedom. And I won. But I chose to stay."

"Stay?"

"The doors to my home closed behind me, even if no one was there to see it. And I chose to stay in my new found life. But..."

Naoto was afraid the man would lose his gut, so she pressed on.

"But it wasn't the same. Yugi was growing up, going places I never knew existed. There was no more world-threatening villain for us to defeat, or impossibly difficult duels to win. There was just... his life. Not mine. And I could feel I was getting on his way."

"But you were friends, weren't you?" Said Yu, his eyebrow curved. "Was there any reason you felt that way?"

"It just wasn't enough for any of us." He felt weaker than he actually should. Saying the truth hurt. "We spent years dueling our way out of every problem, together! And it was fine! We helped each other and we grew together, nothing could stop us! And then _nothing_! No duels, no adventure, not even... I mean... suddenly that wasn't the point anymore? If dueling wasn't important, then what was I there for anyway? Was _I _even important anymore?"

"There's something you're not telling us, Pharaoh." Naoto said, catching the glimmer of a secret on his eye. "It's important. Please."

Atem's mouth twisted in a grimace that looked like a child's, or a woman scorned's.

"He got married."

Silence.

"No way." Rise said, her mouth gaping. "NO WAY. You are..."

"What?" He genuinely didn't seem to understand what she was getting at.

"You know..."

"I actually don't, Rise. If-"

"You're like Kanji-kun?!"

"What is wrong with Kanji?" His face of bewilderment was almost torture for Naoto, and Yu was practically sweating bullets. He looked like he'd had this discussion before and it didn't go so well.

"Pharaoh, please continue your line of thought. What's wrong with Yugi-san getting married?"

"Well... suddenly it was all about her. There was no time for me, or for dueling, or anything. His priorities changed so much in so little time, and it just drove the point home." His face was dark and stained with pain. "Yugi didn't need me anymore. I was just dragging him back, like an anchor to his past. I wasn't completely stuck to the Puzzle anymore. I could control it and take it wherever I wanted. So I left."

Rise and Yu looked at each other during the four seconds break Naoto took before asking:

"So you felt abandoned as a friend and a fellow duelist by Yugi."

"Yes... I believe you can say that."

"Sooo... you're not... you know?" Rise asked, with her own mix of innocence and gossip-mongering.

"Rise, I honestly _don't know what_-"

"She is" Yu finally broke the ice, wanting to move on. "asking if you loved Yugi or not."

"... _what_?"

"Because it's really unclear and..." Rise tried picking up the slack, but Atem interrupted her.

"GREAT RAH_! NO!" _The man's disgusted face looked as distraught as Naoto looked embarrassed. "He is my _best friend_! _What is_ _wrong with you?!"_

"Well you were the one who said 'oh he got married!' like it's all the reason you need!" Said Rise, puffing her cheeks adorably. Atem stared at her at a lost for words.

"That's not the case, though!" Naoto said, in a tad higher pitch than she intended. "Let's just move on."

"I am sorry for lying." He said, clearly ashamed. "I thought the whole story was... shameful."

"_It was._"

"Quiet, you." Yu said deadpan, not even looking up. "Don't think we forgot the promise our Sensei made." The Shadow didn't answer.

"Are you still doing that?" Naoto said, smirking slightly. "I thought you were the Sensei, according to Teddie."

"I guess things change." Yu smiled. "Don't worry, Pharaoh. This changes nothing. We'll go on, you'll face your Shadow and we'll beat Bakura shortly after."

Atem didn't answer, and Yu didn't bother him. He just helped the purple-haired man up.

That had answered less than Naoto expected, and more than she wanted.

* * *

"But I mean, why the fuck did she go for Nomura?! Cho did everything for the girl and she just says she's not ready? I spat my soda all over the TV when I watched them kissing!"

"Really?" Kanji had been going on for a while now.

"Yeah, I mean, god damn it, thirteen episodes of Mitsu trying to get his attention, and then when she stops doing it he finally goes "Okay, I guess I like you", and then SHE DOESN'T WANT IT anymore! God damn it!" The thug punched a Shadow's face while passionately talking about Love Summer, his favorite dorama. "If you want the guy just go to him! It's okay, he likes you too! It's so obvious!"

"Kanji-kun, look out!" She said, watching as Kanji masterfully threw his chair at a red bird-man that was flying towards them. Kanji then jumped forward and punched the monster on the face, immediately throwing it at Take-Mikazuchi's direction. His Persona finished the combo by electrocuting it to death. "Wow, that was-"

"Screw Nomura, GOD DAMN IT!" He continued walking in a straight line through the corridors of the Black Pyramid, seemingly unaware of the Shadows' increasing strenght. They were still on the second floor, but the monsters there seemed like they were trying to keep people inside the dungeon from getting out. His trance faded a little when he had to defend a piercing attack, but it only made him angrier. "OH YOU GUYS WANNA GET ROUGH? BRING IT ON."

Kanji was having a moment, so Yukiko decided to stay quiet and to cast Diarama once in a while. It just looked personal.

* * *

"I think I see them." Running while using Sukukaja was super fun, at least for Yosuke. He just moved so _fast. "_Hey, you guys! We're here!"

Yu and his group greeted Yosuke and Chie as they approached, both tired and roughed up. Jiraiya was pretty versatile, but his healing skills were limited. Yosuke just liked to rely on Yukiko for that.

"Are you guys okay?", "Are you hurt?", "Did you see the others?" were some of the questions that they exchanged, and when it was clear that everything was fine, they all agreed to wait for Kanji and Yukiko.

The sound of something heavy breaking was heard a couple of minutes later, followed by Kanji's hulking physique making his way onto the corridor. Yukiko followed behind, not nearly as battle-worn as the bleached-hair teenager was.

"We're all here except for Teddie." She said, looking around. "I wonder if he's in danger?"

"I'm afraid we'll have to worry about this later." Naoto didn't like the prospect of leaving Teddie to his own luck like that, but they couldn't do anything about it right now. The list of priorities went Shadow Atem, then Teddie, and then Bakura. "I think we're getting close to the top of the pyramid. Let's get this over with."

* * *

It was an enormous dueling field.

It wasn't exactly Domino City's finals, however. Indeed, it was built on the style of the old Egyptian games of shadows: A giant stone board, with no real place to sit or to hold yourself while dueling for the opponent. It was a battle of wits and willpower in every way.

On the other side of the room there was an ebony throne, adorned with drawings of many different monsters. The lighting in the room made sure they could all see how spacious and empty it was. Other than the field and the throne, there was nothing else there.

And sitting on the throne, Shadow Atem awaited them.

He dressed in what was probably some kind of military outfit for Egyptian mages at the time. He had a tiara made out of gold with the Millennium Puzzle's eye symbol adorning his forehead, and earrings that looked like small gold bars from afar, but surely had some sort of detail on them.

His robe was black, with a golden belt on his waist and with many fabrics going all the way to the ground. It looked like a very menacing dress, really. His arms were naked, and he wore a bracelet on his left arm and a very big, very heavy-looking gauntlet on his right arm. His left hand carried a staff, very similar to the Dark Magician's, but instead of having a crystal at its end, it had an upside-down Millennium Puzzle, like if it were a spear's tip.

Shadow Atem was smiling. Not menacingly, but having glowing yellow eyes will do that particular job for you.

"**Welcome, duelists, to my Black Pyramid. I am your Pharaoh." **His voice sounded different in person. It was much deeper, and you could clearly hear two voices talking at the same time. "**Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.**"

"I have come to end this." Naoto said, taking a step forward. "COME, SUKUNA-HIKONA!"

Her Persona materialized, flying in circles around her body. Her gun had found its way to her hand purely by instinct.

So you can imagine Naoto's dull surprise when Shadow Atem raised his hand as if saying "wait."

"**You are too hasty, young lady.**" The Shadow said, his smile never fading. "**I may think Atem to be a disappointment, but it doesn't change the fact that I challenge **_**him**_** to a duel **_**first**_**.**"

Atem could barely stand up. He had no chance.

"A duel? Dude, we're gonna _kick your ass_ are you're talking about Duel Monsters?!" Said Yosuke, kunai ready to rock. "Screw this, let's go at him!"

"I agree." Kanji had his chair behind his back, but that could easily change.

"**You are a very ignorant lot, aren't you?**" The monster said, raising his staff. The eye started glowing yellow. "**I never gave you a choice.**"

From the field, a giant summoning field appeared, with two vase-like torches decorated with the eye symbol facing the Seekers of Truth. A runic circle circumscribed a red, liquid-like glowing core. A blue flame burned bright floating over it, and as it gained a humanoid shape, Atem's eyes grew wide.

"No, no." He whispered, more to himself than to his friends. "Not now."

The man that came from the fire was dressed in a black and red leathery armor. The warrior had red straps on all of his members, as if they were containing his power. His jet black hair contrasted his deep blue skin, and his crowd resembled gigantic demon horns. With one swoop of his great staff, the magician surrounded all of the Investigation Team and Atem in a fire circle, serving as an arena.

"**Atem the Nameless Pharaoh, come forth and let us duel. Magician of Black Chaos, entertain our guests.**"

Atem grit his teeth and looked at Naoto. The woman was clearly not comfortable with the idea of him fighting in a shadow duel on his current state.

He walked out of the circle of blue fire, and the flames didn't hurt him. His deck came out of his pocket and started floating around his body, and with a hand movement he arranged everything in a random order. The deck floated to his hand, and a gauntlet similar to Shadow Atem's materialized on his right arm. He placed the deck on the correct place and opened the golden wings.

"I accept your challenge, monster."

"**Hm. Monster?**" The Shadow didn't get up, but his gauntlet also opened up. "**Interesting way to define yourself.**"

Atem ignored him. "It's time..."

"Pharaoh, wait!" Naoto tried saying, but the Magician threw a dark fire ball at her feet. His red eyes were obvious on their murdering intent: this was a very powerful individual who wanted to kill everyone on her general direction. "Damn it."

"... to duel."

* * *

_so college happened_

_And yeah, I know the name of the card is actually _Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen_, but still, it sounded cooler like this._


	6. Beast Rising

It had been a while since Atem got in a duel of that magnitude, especially in a classic field like that. He loved the feeling of having five cards on his hands and going against the world, even if his heart was heavy with exhaustion right now.

Shadow Atem went first. He was still sitting down, looking at the cards on his hands.

"**It's been a while, hasn't it?**" The creature said, looking directly at his counterpart. "**Clear black and white morals. A win-or-lose only situation. Nice and clean, just the way you like it.**"

"Play, beast."

"**Very well. I set my monster facing down.**" He placed a card on the monster roll, horizontal and facing downwards. A cautious beginning. "**That's how we always used to begin duels when we were children, remember? Always one card facing down, defensive position. We thought it would be foolish to do anything different, because it would make us vulnerable.**"

Atem didn't answer. He didn't want to say anything that could lead to a _you are not me_ situation.

"**In the end, you **_**did**_** end up vulnerable, didn't you? No matter what you did.**"

He drew a card. The Pot of Greed. Maybe it would prove useful, but not now. Atem decided to ignore the opponent and focus on the duel.

"I set up a card facing down. Then, I sacrifice a card to Special Summon my monster! Go, The Tricky!" The jester-like humanoid with a question mark for a face appeared in front of Atem, 2000 attack points and all. The Pharaoh put his monster on the Graveyard. "Destroy his face down monster!"

The caped man jumped straight forward, onwards to its enemy.

"**Man-Eater Bug.**"

The face-down card exploded when the monstrous being stood up. In one fell swoop, he lunged at the airborne target ferociously, completely destroying him.

"**That was a sloppy move. I assume you just want to get this over with, maybe to help your friends out?**"

Atem clenched his teeth. He didn't expect Bakura's card to show up.

"**They don't need you, so don't worry. Look, they are doing just fine.**" He actually looked back to the circle of fire.

The Black Magician of Chaos was wreaking havoc with his staff, summoning black fire balls as projectiles and quickly moving towards any of his targets. Yosuke had used Sukukaja on everyone, but it was still not fast enough. He saw as Kanji grabbed the magician and performed an amazing suplex, but then let go exasperated as his shirt started to burn.

"Atem!" Said Yu, sword in hand, Scathach the Irish warrior summoned by his side. "Don't worry about us, just finish him!"

"**See?**" Said his Shadow, smiling. "**You're not needed at all.**"

"Wait, that's not what he meant!" Chie tried saying, but the magician's leg found its way to her stomach, throwing her into the fire. She would have been finished if Naoto's Sukuna-Hikona hadn't interfered on her trajectory.

"We have our own battles to fight, Pharaoh! Focus!"

Naoto's words managed to reassure him, even if just a little.

"**I set two cards face down, and then I summon the** **Green Gadget, in Attack mode.**" The creature was made out of gears. Atem recognized the card. It was Yugi's. "**Because of its effect, I can draw the Red Gadget to my hand.** **I end my turn.**"

_He knows I have something to protect myself. _Atem thought. _I must be careful, but that was a foolish first draw. _The man looked at the cards he was holding, and then drew another one. A monster he could actually summon.

"I summon Gazelle, the King of Mythical Beasts, on defense mode!" The lion-man appeared before the Pharaoh. "I then set a card facing down, and I end my turn."

"**Afraid, are we?**" The Shadow smiled ironically. "**I activate the Spell Card Ties of the Brethren!**"

Atem's eyes widened as he recognized that card.

"**With it, I can summon two Level 4 monsters. And I believe you know which ones I will summon.**"

"How _dare_ you."

"**Come, Yellow Gadget! Red Gadget!**"

The cog-men came to the Shadow's support, each a formidable adversary on their own. But Atem didn't care about that.

"How _DARE_ you!"

"**As a tribute, I will pay 1000 Life Points, and-**"

"YOU ARE USING YUGI'S DECK!"

The Shadow was smiling as Atem raged. His yellow eyes seemed to have fun with the outburst.

"**Why, of course. He was our friend, after all. Don't you remember that last duel?**"

"Don't you dare speak of him. You are a mere shadow of me, you wouldn't–"

"_**Please**_**. Without me, that stupid kid would be nothing. I made him into the King of Games, I defeated every enemy, and he took the credit.**"

"_Continue your turn_."

"**Of course, I didn't mind giving him the credit. What was I going to do with it, anyway? We were best friends. It was completely fine. But how did he repay me?**"

Atem bit his own tongue. He was falling into the creature's trap.

"**Hahaha. Pitiful. As I was saying, for summoning the two of them, I pay 1000 Life Points as tribute. And now, I end my turn.**"

_I get it now_, Atem thought. _He doesn't need to win. He just needs to make me angry._

_And it's working._

"It's my turn." The Pharaoh drew Monster Reborn. "First, I will summon Big Shield Gardna, in defense mode. Then, I will use Pot of Greed." He then drew Obelisk the Tormentor and Rebellion. He had no real options right now. "I… end my turn."

"**I sacrifice my Red Gadget to summon my Summoned Skull, in attack mode. After that… actually, you know what?**" His smile disappeared. "**Magician of Black Chaos! Kill the redhead.**"

Atem's horrified expression turned to the circle, where the group was still fighting. The monster looked at Shadow Atem and nodded, and pointed its staff directly at Rise. The girl had no time to escape.

A giant black fireball shot from the staff's tip, carbonizing part of the floor. Chie used Bufudyne to try and stop it, but it was too strong.

"MOVE RISE, GOD DAMN IT!" Kanji's Take-Mikazuchi struck Rise with its gigantic shoulder, which made her fly out of the way. It wasn't fast enough for _it_ to move, however, and it received the attack on full. Kanji screamed in agony, collapsing to the ground as his Persona broke.

"KANJI-KUN!" Yukiko kneeled next to him, counting on Yosuke to protect her momentarily. "Cover me, he needs to be healed immediately!"

Yu's teeth clenched in anger as he invoked a card. He spun the apparition in mid-air and broke it with his left hand when it stopped. His Persona was replaced by a majestic angel with six wings. "HELEL!"

Naoto dreaded the thought of Yu fighting angry. But she wasn't very happy right now either.

"PERSONA!" Sukuna-Hikona floated around her, sword in hand. "Whenever you want, Senpai!"

Both Personas started glowing in power as their combined might was directed towards the enemy.

"MEGIDOLAON!"

The two Almighty spheres of energy combined into a giant one, aimed at the Magician of Black Chaos.

"**What is it with you and people who need rescuing?**"

Atem's glare could almost burn through stone when he turned it to the monster.

"_Play, you bastard._"

The magic attack annihilated the Magician of Black Chaos. It was good timing too, since all the fighting had burned out the Investigation Team. Naoto could feel Sukuna-Hikona almost begging to disappear. And even if he hadn't taken a straight hit like Kanji did, she knew Yosuke was on his last leg.

They had to finish this quickly, but the circle was still there.

"**I will attack now. Summoned Skull, attack…**"

He was ready for that. His hand was already reaching for the trap card.

"… **the woman in red.**"

Time seemed to stopped as the energy beam coming from the Summon Skull passed right by Atem's ear, straight for Yukiko. The Pharaoh turned around almost in a trance.

The healer was kneeling, but heard the attack coming. She had time to jump up and summon Konohana-Sakuya right in front of her, but her Persona wasn't strong enough to take that hit in full. It shattered. And the beam continued.

She felt pain like never before when the attack pierced her skin, and then her flesh. It opened a hole on the right side of her abdomen. Chie screamed, and Yukiko vomited blood while falling on the ground.

Atem didn't care that it was against the rules. He didn't care that he would lose the duel.

"_OBELISK THE TORMENTOR!" _

The Egyptian God sapped almost all of his life energy to appear on all of his glory, a giant overshadowing the arena. The other monsters disappeared, for the duel was over. Atem was about to kill his opponent and he was perfectly fine with that.

"**Really, Pharaoh. You give up so soon? Have you forgotten that this is a duel to the death?**"

"_SHUT UP!_"

"**Don't pretend you care about her. We both know you're only with them because you want the attention. You want to feel part of a group again.**"

"_SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP! YOU KILLED HER!_"

"**Lie to yourself all you want, you can't lie to **_**me**_**. **_**We**_** killed her. **_**We **_**dragged them into this, **_**we**_** made it their problem, and**_** we**_** had them searching this TV World for Bakura with us. She would be completely healthy if you hadn't come to this city.**"

"OBELISK! OBLITERATE THIS _BASTARD_!"

But the giant didn't obey. Atem was too weak to command anything, much less a god. His knees failed him and he fell to the ground, his face touching the cold stone. His summoning was undone by his own lack of power.

"**All this is is just a big ego trip for us. You endanger people to give meaning to your life, and when they move on, you find other victims. She died because of you, and now they will too.**"

The Summoned Skull came back. This time, accompanied by a Curse of Dragon.

"**Kill the detective.**"

Naoto was by Yukiko's side trying to contain the bleeding. Her gaze met Atem's for a second when she heard the word detective, and it was filled with anger and fear.

And it was his fault.

"Stop it." Both the tears and the fact that he was barely breathing made it harder to see. "Just please… leave them alone… leave my friends alone…"

"**But I thought this was what you wanted. To be the hero again. To save your friends from their death. Didn't you want to be important again… me?"**

He didn't care anymore. His mind was blank. There was no life left on his soul.

"You are… _not…_"

The flames around the Investigation Team subdued. Yu understood why. The Leader didn't move, he just kept using Ishtar to try to heal Yukiko with what little power he had left. He prayed there was enough energy to save Kanji, as well.

"Yosuke, Chie, Naoto." He said, not even looking at his wing-man. "Fight this battle without me. I am busy. Help them, Rise."

"Right on, Leader." There was none of the usual happy-go-lucky vibe on his voice. There was just a sense of duty that didn't fit the Magician, but that would serve him wonders in a couple of seconds. Chie yelled a wild battle cry while wiping her tears, and Naoto didn't say anything.

They were waiting for Atem to say the rest.

"… _me_…"

That was the last thing Atem said before passing out, his life dimming away by the second. He knew he was done.

* * *

Naoto liked to think of herself as a calm individual.

Not much got a rise out of her, and her rage usually manifested as cold, calculated actions or ideas. She wasn't perfect, of course, but it wasn't really a habit to give in to her ire.

This time, however, two of her best friends were in the brink of death, and an individual she had vowed to protect was dying right in front of her. Shadow Atem laughed as it transformed into its ultimate form, but Naoto didn't flinch. She didn't even blink when it absorbed the two monsters it had just summoned. The detective just stared at the monstrosity.

It had taken the form of a ten-feet tall colossus, with a golden helmet on its head. There were three faces: one was that of a dog, the other was that of a bird, and the middle one was that of a man. It was sitting down, its body physically connected to a gigantic ebony throne, being decorated like an old Pharaoh's robes. On its left hand it held a staff as tall as it was, having a free right hand with something akin to a duelist gauntlet on its arm.

"_**I am a Shadow. The true self. I am the Nameless Pharaoh. Legendary hero. King of Games. Let the names of my enemies be forgotten on the annals of History-**__" _His speech was cut short by a gunshot, precisely on the middle of his forehead. There was a dent where the bullet hit.

The following bullet hit the human face's left eye. The third shot hit the right one. Then the middle of the mouth. And finally the heart.

"No." Naoto said, re-loading her gun. "You are just my target practice for the next _hour_."

Chie and Yosuke summoned their Personas. Naoto followed suit. Rise started analyzing the giant enemy.

"**_Come forth, heroes. Avenge your friends, if you can._**" It said, slowly approaching Atem's body with its giant free hand. It barely touched him, but a phantasmagorical white energy transferred itself from the man to the monster. They all watched in horror as Atem's body disappeared.

"What did you do to him?!" Screamed Yosuke, trying his hardest to not grow desperate.

"**_He lost the duel. His soul is now mine. Do not worry, petulant children._**"

With a swing of his scepter, he summoned three Dark Magicians. They weren't like Atem's: instead of a normal human being inside a suit, there was only humanoid-like darkness on them.

"**_I will have your souls, as well._**_"_


End file.
